


Elf Lord - An Overlord Fanfiction

by doodsreternal



Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-24 09:22:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 37,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9715142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doodsreternal/pseuds/doodsreternal
Summary: another YGGDRASIL player transferred to New World





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I'm not a native English speaker. I'm sorry in advance for the grammatical mistakes.
> 
> 2\. I'm not a writer either.I have no idea where I'm going to take this story. I just write when I have an inspiration or an idea.
> 
> 3\. I'm not too concerned if some parts of my story is not the same with the canon. So if you don't like that sort of stuff then maybe this story isn't for you.
> 
> 4\. I just want to have fun with my characters.
> 
> 5\. This is also posted in another site. If you saw it there that is me.. Hello :)
> 
> Disclaimer:
> 
> I don't own Overlord.

Wind rushing through my face, my whole body.

I'm falling.

Falling.

And then suddenly nothing.

I open my eyes. There's a vast forest coming at me at an incredible speed.

"wh- what's going on?"

I don't understand I should be in my room right now. The forest is coming closer. I flail my arms and legs around trying to grab something. This must be a dream.

A panic sets in. I slap myself. "Wake up" I screamed in my head. I slap myself again but nothing happens. That means I'm awake. The reality finally hit me. I really am falling.

I must have gotten the timing wrong. I' m still in the game. As the view of the forest fills my field of vision I tried to do a somersault. I messed it up. A branch of a tree hits my leg and I go tumbling down the dense forest breaking branches, hitting tree trunks and then mercifully I finally hit the forest floor.

"Ouch"

Falling damage must be on. Well that took a chunk of my HP. I shouldn't have taken off my set or disabled my passive skills. What a stupid idea jumping off a cliff so that when the game ends I'll still be in the air. Rapid Healing will heal me in a second. As I lay in the ground I scan the forest. This is a pretty dense forest. I can hardly see the night sky. I just wanted to escape for a minute. My parents just died a week ago. They were the best of parents.

There was an accident 5 years ago. We went out to celebrate their 30th anniversary. I was using my vacation days to spend some time with them. It wasn't the best time for me that time. I just got dumped, I heard some rumors that the firm is going under and I was going to get laid off. So I got drunk for the first time in years. So my dad had to drive because I was drunk. I fell asleep to the voices of my parents saying sweet things to each other. I remember thinking what an awesome couple. I woke up to the pain of my abdomen. Apparently my dad swerved avoiding another car. Thankfully my parents seemed to be okay. They kept looking at me and saying things like "don't worry Jake everything's going to be alright." and "Jacob stay awake as long as you can okay honey?". I woke up at the hospital after that. My lower body paralyzed. After that I quit my job, moved back to my parents. I was depressed for a while but my parents helped me through that too. I guess they were feeling guilty about the accident but I wasn't angry at them. I knew it wasn't their fault. I have a few thousand dollars saved up and my parents are a bit wealthy so accommodating me wasn't a big problem. It was fun having someone to talk to again afte- a strange thought stopped my melancholic memory.

Did I just feel pain? That would be ridiculous because if I feel pain then that means there's contact of my body to the solid ground of the forest and that must mean that. I'm. Not. In. YGGDRASIL. Anymore.

"Well…shit"

YGGDRASIL is a DMMO-RPG that uses virtual reality. You can fight monsters, defend your base, and travel through exotic lands in your own room. Of course a basic in all RPGs that you have an hp bar. It would be ridiculous if you can feel pain if you get damaged. The slashing pain of a sword, the piercing pain of an arrow, and the blunt pain of a club - all this things would be unbearable. That's just the weapons. There are all sorts of magic. There are all sorts of status effects. So if you can feel pain while playing you would probably black out or worse.

So either I'm in the game. Or I've become insane. Well between the two choices I would prefer the former because here I can move my legs. VRs are great because even though you have a physical disability it would not affect your character and your gaming experience. A lot of people whose whole body are paralyzed use VR to talk to their families and friends.

So I'm in a game or something. somewhere? whatever.

I get up and look around me. It's a beautiful forest but it feels like there's something wrong. It's quiet, too quiet. I look around me but I don't see anything. I don't feel any presence either. In YGGDRASIL I chose an elf hunter character. The elves have racial skills that make them marvelous hunters, especially at night. Dark vision, Hunter's senses (helps to see better and farther, and also adds a keen hearing ability), life sense, agile body other passive skills that help them to become excellent hunters.

Before I do anything else I need to test a few things. After a couple of minutes I found out my inventory turned into a pocket dimension and I can access it by reaching into the air and concentrating a little bit. I can also use my skills by concentrating on them. In YGGDRASIL you have to click an icon to use it in battle. This makes the flow of battle in YGGDRASIL a bit slow. Looks like the battles here are going to be smoother and faster.

I continue surveying the forest around me. I need to be careful because for all I know the enemies here exceeds level 100. I might be level 100 but if I'm not careful I might die and there's nobody around that I can trust to resurrect me.

I carefully draw my bow and retrieve an arrow from the Endless Quiver to ready myself. A few heartbeat passes. No presence. I climb a nearby tree to increase my vantage point. I jump branch to branch trying to find life. A few jumps and finally I sense something. Is that a pack of wolves? No their footsteps are louder. I jump a few more branches to get a good look at them. A few meters away in a small clear patch of land I finally spot them. There are 6 wolves. They're bigger than any wolves in YGGDRASIL I've ever seen.

I fire a lure arrow a few meters behind them towards the dense forest to distract them. As soon as the arrow hit the ground it released a scent that immediately took the attention of the wolves.

[Arrow rain I]

The single arrow that I released multiplies as it flies through the air. As the arc reaches its peak my single arrow turned into a few dozen arrows.

My priority is to gauge their strength so that's why I used my weakest Area of Effect attack. Arrow Rain only has 2/5th of a normal attack. I hit all of them but I didn't kill any and they scatter to avoid another volley of my arrows.

Suddenly behind me I detected a presence with murderous intent. I quickly jump down and suddenly there's a whoosh sound and another wolf appears.

It landed in front of the other wolves. It bares its fangs in a show of hostility. I carefully step forward bow half-drawn to observe the wolf. The pack of wolves I attacked before has a brown fur with a few sparsely white furs. The new wolf has also a brown fur but it's much richer in color. The new wolf is a bit bigger than the rest although the rest of the pack is already quiet big. This must be the alpha of the pact.

The wolf cronies bare their fangs and attempt to encircle me but the alpha wolf growls at them and they cower back.

"ooh you want a 1 on 1?"

Growl bark bark

"Is that a yes?"

bark bark

"I'm interested in you now. If I beat you you're going to be my pet"

The alpha wolf stands proudly and stares at me baring his sharp fangs.

"That's a pretty smile"

The alpha wolf howls, and his cronies howls with them.

"Then I guess that's that"

We stare at each other while trying to encircle one another. Suddenly the alpha charges me. He's fast but I'm faster. I roll out of his way as the alpha tries to bite me. As soon as I stop the roll I turn around and fire an arrow with a paralyzing effect. The alpha wolf evaded my arrow by turning left.

He charges me again and I feint to the left and he bought it. I side step him and I swung my bow to his body. I hit him across his left body and he yelps in pain. I blow him back a few feet and he slams into a near tree. He cries in pain once again but he doesn't stay down very long. He bares his teeth at me again and growls at me. Suddenly he started glowing, no wait that's not accurate. The alpha wolf is covered by a slim layer of blue light that looks like-

"Is that a buff?"

I smile. The alpha wolf can use skills. That means he is stronger than the average but I don't remember encountering any wolf that has that particular skill. I don't recognize the buff either. It means that that buff is a different skill that is in YGGDRASIL or that wolf is stronger than the wolves in YGGDRASIL. I'm getting absorbed into the fight. My bloodlust skill is slowly activating. Bloodlust adds power to my attacks but sacrifices my accuracy. It's helpful in a fight but not always.

The alpha wolf crouches and readies for attack. I change my weapons into a dual stiletto. The alpha wolf lunges incredibly fast at me. I thought he was going to use biting attacks but he didn't, instead he uses his claws to swipe at me. I parry 2 of his swipes but I don't attack him as he passes instead I want to observe him a little more. Crouch-lunge-swipe-land-turn. He repeats this kind of attack a few times.

"Is that all you got? Come one show me something more powerful"

He growls at my taunt. He rebuffs but this time there are 3 layers of light: blue, white, green. he lunges and disappears. I look around trying to feel his presence and then something tackles me. The alpha wolf is on top of me. He doesn't bite my neck though because I got my stilettos pointed at his neck.

"If you were faster than me then you would have killed me by now. Yield to me or die"

There's intensity to my voice that sort of surprised me. As I look into the eyes of the alpha I saw the anger that was there before turned fear and finally understanding. He got off of me and as I stood up to look at him I saw the pride was still there but there's more now. I see that he respects me now. He looks for his pack and spots them at the tree line to his left. They are wounded but not heavily. I walk to them and give them a few minor healing potions and the wounds starts to close up. I turn and look at the alpha.

"You can come with me if you want. I won't force you to. You can stay here. If you go with me though, you will know power like nothing you have ever known before."

I leave him alone to think it over. Besides I have some thinking over to do myself. So I'm in a new world. Am I stuck here? Can I go back? If I can go back would I? This body is an elf's body, my character at YGGDRASIL then what happens to my real body? Am I the only YGGDRASIL player here? I consider all of these questions. A few moments passes and I hear small footsteps coming toward me.

"You are coming with me then?"

As I look at my new companion I see determination. He lowers his head as a show of respect. I remember my old dog when I was young. I loved that dog. In his memory I will name this wolf:

"Okay. I will call you Buster mk. II"

He looks up at me and tilts his head to one side questioningly.

"Buster for short. Let's go. Now where's the nearest town?"

Chapter 2  
YGGDRASIL started about 12 years ago. I was among the first players of the game. Back then you can only travel into Midgard. Even then the game was stupefying. YGGDRASILs selling point was its high player customizability. You can change your appearance, your items appearance, rename your item and in specific racial job classes your pet's trait.

But the truly awe inspiring aspect of the game is with its ability to simulate an economy, the depth of its story and finally the secret items, quest, different races that you can find. Of course to stay secret you would have to sign a contract first guaranteeing the secrecy of what you might find.

I managed to find 1 additional elf race, 5 secret items and 50 quests. All of these nearly took me 9 years to complete. That's why after I open my status panel I was overjoyed that my race is still True Elf Lord and my attributes are still the same.

True Elf Lord

Alignment: Neutral

Job Level:

Forest Elf 10 Lv

Elf Lord 5 Lv

True Elf Lord 5 Lv

Archer 10 Lv

Hunter 15 Lv

Ranger 15 Lv

Assasin 5 Lv

Alchemist 5 Lv

Sniper 5 Lv

Mage 5 Lv

Pharmacist 5 Lv

Rider 5 Lv

Others

Weakness: susceptible to Venom, Terror, Fragile (advance status effects)

HP: 80

MP: 30

PHY ATK: 83

PHY DEF: 79

Agility: exceeds limit (136)

MAG ATK: 36

MAG DEF: 45

Resist: 50

Special: 100

"That's odd; you're not registered as my pet yet. Does that mean I need some sort of ceremony to do that? Or maybe..I wonder.."

I look at buster and I ask him

"You're not a Werewolf or you?

Buster just looks at me

"Or are you maybe a shape shifter?"

He shakes his head, snorts, sits and then looks at me.

I shrug

"Ehh. You'll tell me when you'll tell me. Call out to your friends, they can eat with us but you will have to hunt for them too. They don't look like they can hunt yet"

Buster gets up and jogs back to where his friends are. They still seem wary of me but that's to be expected. In the mean time I would hunt for myself. After a few minutes I managed to find 2 rabbits, a few herbs for spices and a few fishes I managed to catch at a nearby river. When I get back at the clearing the wolf cronies are huddled together resting. When they sense me they watch me carefully. I dump my catch at a tree and warn them.

"These are mine okay? Buster will catch something for you."

They seem to get it; at least the warning in my voice will make them think twice about eating my catch. I look for a few fire woods and in a few minutes I got a fire going. I roast my rabbits and fishes and I give the guts to the wolves. Of course it's not enough but I guess it's an appetizer for them. After a few minutes buster comes back with a deer that he drags by the neck. I get up and help him. As I drop it in front of the wolves I carve out the back leg of the deer, skin it, rub some spice on it and roast it next to the rabbits and fishes.

"You can eat now B but let them eat first. I think they need more protein"

Buster looks at me, then to the cronies, back at me. He seems to have made a decision and sits down a little closer to the fire.

After the meal is done cooking I give the deer leg to Buster and a rabbit. The cronies seems to have had their fill and in the process of falling asleep. As he bites to his deer his ears moves and his tail starts to wag.

"It's more delicious right? Go ahead, eat up"

As we finish our meal I think about how to find the nearest town. I wonder what species are living there. Elves? Humans? Maybe beastmen? Back in YGGDRASIL there are all kinds of different races but we all knew we were humans. Of course there are those that would bully someone because they picked a different race but that's just humans being jerks to each other. I fall asleep as I remember these memories.

I woke up to the sunlight hitting me in the face and from Buster licking me. As I get up and stretch I notice the cronies are gone.

"They left huh. Don't worry B we'll come back here so you can see them again"

Buster grins at that and barks twice as an answer. He starts to wag his tail.

"Come on let's go take a bath, there' a river over there."

We jog to the river. After arriving there Buster jumps into the river and attempts to catch a few fish. I disrobe down to my underwear and jumps after him. After a few minutes of cleaning I decided it's time for breakfast.

"Buster get off the river. Dry yourself and get some fire wood, I'm going to catch us some breakfast"

Buster gets off the river, shakes himself dry and looks for a few fire woods and I equip a Hunter's bow (my weakest bow) to catch a few fish. After a few minutes buster comes back with a mouthful of fire wood dumps them near me and gets down to sleep. I caught 2 dozen fishes. I gut them, skewer them with a few sticks and rub the left over herbs I got last night. I light a fire; stick the skewered fishes to the ground, looks for a stone to sit on, sits and wait. If anybody spots the smoke I'll offer some to be friendly otherwise I'm going to save it for lunch. After a few minutes in a hundred or so meters I sense 5 presences.

"I guess we'll eat something else for lunch"

As I turn the fish so that the other side can cook the 5 presences are finally close enough to hear me. I shout:

"Hello there, I have a few fishes here. I can share them with you if you're friendly enough."

The presences suddenly stops walking, it seems that I startled them. They start whispering to each other. I can't make out the words but there doesn't seem to be hostility in their voices so that's good. As they (humans apparently) get to the tree line they see Buster and they tense up.

"Hello don't worry about him he's friendly. Say hi Buster"

Buster opens his eyes, lifts his head, looks at them, looks at me, barks twice and finally puts his down his head to sleep again.

"See? He's nice. Come sit"

They look at each other and then most at them look at the warrior of their party. He (apparently the leader) says alright, although he said it to them, looks for a rock to sit on, takes it and beckons the others to do the same. They put their stones opposite of me and Buster so that they are encircling me and Buster. I give them a fish each and I get one for, buster scoop up the guts that I put near the fire to cook a little and walk to where he was and give it to him.

"Here B, time to eat."

Then I return to where I was eating, grab a fish for myself and bite into the fish. During all of this, the humans were watching me. They were wary of me it seems but I don't know why. Maybe because I'm an elf? As I finish my fish and was about to get another one I ask:

"What's the matter? Are you guys not hungry?"

I grab a fish and I watch them watch me. The leader eyes me, the fish then Buster and finally back to me. He shrugs, bites into the fish and says:

"Ummhh! This is delicious!"

He then chomps down on the fish. As the other members of the party see his reaction, they bite into theirs and they too seem to like it.

"You're right, this is delicious" Says the mage of the party

"It sure is better than our food for the past few days." Says the Archer

The thief and the druid (I think) nods making 'mmmm' noises.

"When you finish you can have another one." I said to them

I get another one, toss it to Buster and watch the party enjoy the fish. As the leader of the party finishes his fish he tosses the stick to his back and straightens his back:

"Excuse us for not introducing ourselves"

"No it's alright. You guys look tired, and you look hungry too. You can introduce yourselves later. I'm going to clean my bow while I wait for you."

The leader grabs another fish and bows his head a little to show appreciation. I smile at him and I take out a cloth to clean my bow. I wipe the body of my bow first, then the string. And I did it again a second time to make sure it is dry and clean. I specially paid attention to the runes carved into it. Of course these runes are based off of the Norse Mythological runes but I don't know if they use the same runes here. Do they know about YGGDRASIL? About Thor, Odin, Loki, Ulldr? I wonder if-

*Cough cough* my train of thought was interrupted by my guest. They are ready to talk it seems. I put down the cloth and my bow at my left side.

"Thank you for that lovely meal and again I'm sorry for not introducing ourselves first. I am Prince Kline Hylene Turner Ferida." Kline seems young, early twenties perhaps? Dark hair, at 5'9 he's the tallest member of his party, he has a pretty face free of earthly worries. He wears full plate armor; the picturesque image of a knight. Although this looks like his first quest. Inexperienced but he seems to be a kind leader, I can see it in his eyes.

Points at the mage "He is Heath Dyner our mage who can cast 3rd tier magic" Heath looks like Kline's father. He has brownish hair, well kept beard. He has one of those faces that looks like he is always about to share his wisdom, I kind of like it. He wears a white robe and has leather armor underneath. He has a long staff as tall as he is. The tips of his staff are covered with metal and have few spikes (battle mage then?).

points at the archer "Our Ranger Niles Yund" Niles nods his acknowledgement and goes back to surveying the area. His blue eyes look sharp, analyzing his environment for any kind of attack. His skinny physique is the result of training; you can see the muscles in his arms and legs. He has leather armor and chainmail. In his belt he has a couple of throwing daggers and a short sword.

Points to the thief "She is our resident thief Perier Quickhands , she gave herself that name. She says it makes her sound cooler"

"Doesn't it?" ask Perier. The smallest of the party, she is built for speed. Her legs are more muscled than her arms. She has two small bags strapped to her waist and below those are her 2 daggers. Her blond hair is cut short so that it won't hinder her line of sight. She has this easy-going attitude air about her. She seems the same age as Kline and even though her face maybe unremarkable but her smile makes her more feminine.

Kline ignores her and introduces the last member of their party "Finally our druid Rose Patina." She looks like she's in her late twenties. Her serious face coupled with her worry lines makes her look like a mother. She radiates this caring and protective aura. Strapped on her left hip looks like a silver mace and on her right is a dark green scepter. She wears chainmail armor underneath the leather armor.

"How do you do? I'm Jake Valnan. I'm also a ranger but I dabble with different arts. I mostly roam from place to place looking to find something new. What about you, what are you doing here?"

Kline nods his head and says: "You are a traveler then? My father asked me to investigate our friends at the dwarf's kingdom. We have a mutual beneficial relationship with them: In exchange for our wine or beer they trade new weapons or tools and repair our old ones that can still be repaired but for some reason they haven't trade with us for nearly 6 months and obviously our military and economic forces are deteriorating. We have a hostile relationship with the Beastmen kingdom, and if we don't get new weapons and tools for farming, we are either going to die in the battlefield or in hunger. We-"

I hold up my hand to quiet him. I sense something: their footsteps are heavy; I can hear something banging into the trees (clubs maybe?). Buster gets up, his ears are alert. I quietly warn them:

"Get ready. We may have enemies coming. They are a dozen or so feet away from us."

Alarm shows in their face but they listen to me. Kline steps forward drawing his sword and his shield. Heath starts to buff up Kline. Niles draws an arrow and gets ready to shoot. Perier crouches and takes out her daggers. Rose readies her scepter and steps back.

"Buster flank them. Be careful they may have reinforcements. Go!" Buster goes around the enemies so that they won't spot them.

"Hey there! We don't want any trouble. Do you want some fish? We can share" the orcs starts banging the trees with their clubs. Shouting something i can't understand and jeering.

"I can kill you from 't waste your life, don't be stupid". I shouted at them. They stop but they seem to be laughing with scorn. 'Alright your choice'

I shoot an arrow in the forest. A cry of pain interrupts rings out. I let out another. The cry suddenly stops and the sound of something heavy drops. The other 2 creatures stops, looks at their fallen friend and roars.

"Wraaaaaah" they suddenly start running.

"Here they come" as they charge at us the orcs raises their clubs. I shoot the orc at the right, and Niles shoots too. I hit the orc at the left shoulder but in a panic he batted Niles' arrow away. He charges at Rose but Rose jumps out of the way and the club that was about to rain down on her head crashes to the ground and smashes the stone she used to sit on. I took the opportunity to discard my bow, take out my 2 stilettos and run to him. I used his club as a foothold to get to his face. I stab him in the neck and I evade his left hand as he slaps me (which just buried my stiletto deeper into him) and stabs him at the back of the neck. He topples down dead.

As I was getting my stilettos off the orc I watch Kline blocking the female orc's blows. There are 3 arrow lodged into her left breast. As soon as Kline saw an opening he stabs the orc into her belly and she crumbles over. Once her knees hits the ground Buster charges from the back, bites on her neck and snaps it before she can slam him away.

"Anybody hurt?" I ask them

"A few bruises on my shield arm, nothing that an [light healing] won't fix. Damn that orc can swing a club "I smile at them and I pet Buster on the head when he runs to me grinning.

I notice them looking at me strangely.

"What? Are there blood on my face?" I ask them

"Isn't that a War wolf?" asks Kline

"Yeah. I defeated him last night. He became my pet after that, why?"

They look at each other, then at Buster and finally to me and asks:

"Can you help us?"

Chapter 3  
"What amazing places have you been to?" ask the young thief

"Hmm let me see. I've been in a place where there is snow everywhere. The land was covered by snow, the mountains. There is blizzard storm every day. The creatures that live there can grow as tall as 2 meters. They're covered with white fur. Honestly I can't tell the men from the women apart."

The eyes of Perry (she asked me to call her that) were wide and big. Ever since I've decided to help them she bombards me with these questions.

"You're amazing! I want to be just like you: Travelling everywhere, seeing new sights, discovering ancient artifacts. When I have enough equipment I'm going to travel too." She told me with enthusiasm.

"That's enough now Perier. Stop bothering Mr. Valnan" Rose, who is walking behind of us, rebukes Perier.

Perier shows out her tongue at the older woman but obey her and stops asking me questions.

'Hmm that's odd' Buster starts to growl. I stop as soon as I heard it

"Stay here, I'm going to scout ahead. Buster alert them if something comes this way while I'm gone. Bark if the enemy is coming, bark twice if they are near" I said to Niles who relays it to the rest. Buster sits and stays on alert.

I run for a few hundred meters and once I saw the foot of the mountain I slow down to a jog. I hide behind a tree and survey the mountain. Nothing seems to be amiss here at the bottom of the mountain. I look up and then suddenly near the summit of the mountain I spot 2 winged creatures. The other one is small, frail looking, has a small trident in its hand and only wears a loincloth. An imp: useful for scouting. The other one is a demon. A single horn protruding on its forehead, sharp claws on its hand and feet and seems to be only wearing leather armor as to be kept light and fly better. They fly around looking at the forest and seem to be scouting for large armies. As soon as the imp and the demon reach the other side of the summit another pair of imp/demon comes into view. I carefully run back to avoid alarming the sentries and focusing their attention near the base of the mountain. Nothing attacked the party while I was gone but they were still on alert. Once they spotted me though they relax a bit but I guess the look in my eyes signals them that something is wrong.

"What's wrong Mr. Valnan?" ask Kline

"It seems your dwarf friends have been taken over by demons." Their eyes widen

"They have sentries at the peak and unless you know where the entrance is they will catch us."

I scan the faces of my party; I can see the fear and uneasiness that is staring to creep up and take a hold of them. I look at Kline; he seems to be fighting his internal struggles. 'Poor kid. His first quest and he has to face demons'

"I have some experiences dealing with demon kind. I assume you guys don't?"

Their eyes widen even more, more than I thought possible, and look at each other. They shake their heads no. This is plainly unfamiliar territory for them. I breathe deeply for a couple of seconds and think.

"What do you want to do Kline? You can go back and report this and ask for reinforcements."

"No, if we do that our dwarf friends might perish while we're there. We need to at least save a few of them." answers the young prince

"If they're the same demons I'm familiar with they won't do that. Dwarves are skilled craftsmen; demon kind won't wipe dwarves out. It's impractical and too wasteful to demons. They will subjugate them so that dwarves will work for them and then they will relocate the useful dwarves to the demon kingdom and kill the rest."

"How are you familiar with demon kind if you don't mind me asking?" asks Heath. I can see that he's suspicious of me.

"Where I came from it is normal for demon kind to interact with humans. In fact, in our biggest cities all sorts of creatures live there; humans, elves, dwarves, fairies, demons, beastmen, a few reptilian races. All mixed together cohabiting."

"So what do we do Mr. Valnan? Do you have any idea how we can save those dwarves?" asks Kline.

"Hmm if you want to rescue your dwarf friends quickly then you will have to risk your lives. Your party's lives are in your hands Kline but if we do this they will be in mine so you have to trust me and follow me absolutely. Any deviation will not only kill you but get me killed as well so if you can't follow my orders or trust your lives to me then you have to turn back now." I look at the eyes of the young prince. The idea of putting his party's lives on the line without telling them first seems to disturb him. I smile a little inside 'good kid'

I continue "I'm going to go over there and smooth over my plan. You go talk to your team and discuss things. Make sure they understand"

I walk over a few paces away from them to let them mull it over. After a few minutes Kline his team seems to have made a decision.

"Alright Mr. Valnan, we all agreed that you will lead us. They also understand to follow your plan to the letter. Now what do we do?"

I scan them one by one. Kline, Niles and Perry seem to have faith in me. I see determination in them. Heath seems to be protective of Kline and will follow him to the ends of the earth. Rose is anxious but appears to be-contented? Satisfied? 'She may have a her own goal and doing this may seem to complete it'

"Alright everyone listen up, you may not like it but here's the plan. Since you're a prince Kline that will open up a few avenues for us, at very least we can talk to the general of this demon army. Do you have a Royal Symbol or Sigil so that we can prove you are royalty?"

Kline takes out an amulet made out of gold and shows it to me. Their sigil has a crown at the top, all sorts of weapons are arranged in an arc at the sides and in the middle are 2 runes that I don't recognize. I nod.

"The sentries will take this to the general to confirm. Power is everything for them, and since you hold some then they will accommodate us. Now Kline and I will talk to the general while you guys find your dwarf friends and talk to them. Essentially we're going to buy back the freedom of your friends. We won't be able to save all of them, or even most of them, at the most we can only save a few of them but that will have to be enough. Don't be stupid. Don't start a fight. Don't even attempt to prevent or stop a fight. Always remember that power is everything for them, so if you can't help it then challenge them to a duel. This will prevent them from ganging up on you. If any surprises come up remember your assignment."

They did not like it.

While walking to the mountain Kline walks up to me and talks to me quietly.

"This plan is very simplistic Mr. Valnan. Are you sure about this?"

"It's the best that I can do given our numbers, the limited time and our lack of information."

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"Ho there! I'm with Prince Kline Hylene Turner Ferida." I raise the amulet

"We want an audience with your general!"

The sentries fly down to us and the demon takes the amulet from me. Suddenly he speaks

"Hello ma'am, we have here a prince wanting a audience with you." He hand it over to the imp and the imp looks at it closes his eyes and-

"Magic huh?"

The imps' previously black eyes changes: the left eye turns into green with a slit in the middle while the right eye turns into blue with slit in the middle. I cursed under my breath

"Shit, the general is a succubus?"

Kline seems to have heard me but didn't react. The imp nods, closes his eyes once again and when he opens it his eyes turn back into black and gives back the amulet. The demon leads us at the side of the mountain to the entrance which was blocked by a large boulder. The demon touches the front of the boulder and the boulder abruptly starts to shake. In a couple of seconds the boulder moved to the right and the entrance is revealed. As soon as all of us are inside the entrance the boulder starts to close up again. The demon takes a lantern and leads us into the mountain.

The dwarven village inside the mountain was being patrolled by different kinds of demons. One of them has flames coming out of his body, the other has chains wrapped around both of its arms. You can see the dwarves hiding inside their homes terrified. You can also hear the crying of the young. It is a depressive atmosphere. The demon stops at the middle of the village turns around and says menacingly

"You five stay here, the wolf stays as well. Don't cause any trouble or we will kill you."

"I will take the elf with me, he is my adviser" says Kline with an authoritative voice.

The demon eyes my impassive face and shrugs then points to a robed demon.

"Go to her. She will teleport you to the general."

Kline walks proudly and I closely follow him. I wait until we are far enough so that no one will hear me but Kline. I whisper to him

"Kline don't look back. When we arrive at the demon that will teleport us bring your hands behind your back, I will give you a ring when we get teleported out of here and you need to wear it immediately."

When we arrive at the robed demon I quickly stood behind Kline. As we were being teleported away I quickly gave him the ring. One moment I was looking at Heath's worried face and the next we were standing in a hallway. Kline was surprised and he was looking around confused.

"Kline wear the ring: It will shield you from mental dominance."

He looks back at me, nods and gingerly wears the ring on his right middle finger. I gesture towards the end of the hallway and say

"Let's go"

The hallway was beautiful. Carved on the walls was flowers, circular lines that this way and that making beautiful patterns. Carved on the dark doors is what looks like scenes from one of their histories. You can tell that the craftsman who made these is a master. At the end of the hallway guarding the door are 2 demons wearing blood red full plate armor and holding a spear. On their foreheads are 2 horns curling upward. Before I can examine the door the demon on the left side opens the door, goes back to his position and stands in attention. Kline and I go inside.

The room has a high ceiling at least 2 meters tall. The room was illuminated by 3 crystal chandeliers. At the middle of the room is a long curved table. Behind it are 7 high backed chairs. Sitting at the middle with her foot on the table is the general, a succubus. She stands up, bows her head a little bit and introduces herself.

"Hello gentlemen. My name is Zellia. I'm the general of this army."

Zellia was gorgeous. She decorated her 4 horns with gems that compliment her heterochromic eyes pierces you, searches for your inner desires. Her succulent lips are red and wet. Her creamy white skin, her luscious body, her slender arms and legs all are designed for pleasure. Succubi are demons who inspire lust to their victims. I on the other hand is immune to all their allure. It was a good thing I gave that ring to Kline otherwise he would be eating out of her hands right now. Although he still is openly gawking at her.

"Uhhh y-yes. M-my name is-" I cut him off with a hand gesture

"Yeah okay he is Prince Kline Hylene Turner Ferida and I'm Jake Valnan. We want the dwarves."

Zellia looks at the prince with hunger in her eyes, licks her lips and smiles at him. Poor kid. She looks at me and—her eyes widen a bit. She smiles points at me and says

"I want you."

"Sorry Zellia, you can't have me. You and your army can submit to me and be mine." I smile wickedly at her. Kline starts to panic.

She laughs making her whole body jiggle. "You want to have me and my army? Sorry honey if you want to rule us you need to be stronger than me. Demonic Law-"

"Number 1, I know. How about we have a duel?" I take out a dagger; the blade is made out of bone and the hilt is made out of green scales. The sheath is made out of dragon hide. I hold it in my thumb and forefinger, walk slowly to the desk, lower it to the desk and slide the dagger over to Zellia.

"Is this dragon dagger enough proof? I have two of these"

Surprised her eyes widen. She examines the dagger, takes out the blade, runs her thumb across the blade, sheaths it again and tosses it back to me.

"Alright tomorrow at noon we will have our duel. When I beat you I want both of your daggers and your entire team as well."

"That's fine with me. When I win you will swear fealty to me."

She shouts at the guards outside.

"Guards! These two are our guests. Guide them to the guest's room and go get their other companions."

A demon guard opens up the door, waits for us to go through the door, closes the door and leads us to our room. After reaching the end of the hallway, he turns right and continues walking. After reaching the end of this hallway, he turns around to look at us points to the room and says "Guest room", he points to the 4 rooms at the side (2 rooms to the left, 2 rooms the right facing each other) and says bedroom. He opens the door to the guest room and waits for us to enter after which he closes the door and leaves.

"Are you really going to fight her?" asks Kline

"Yeah, why do you want to fight her instead?"

"Uhhh N-no I don't think I can win against her." Kline looks down at the ground. He looks like he wants to ask me something. He opens and closes his mouth a few times. Finally he asks me

"Why do you want her and her entire army to swear fealty to you? They are demons aren't they? Even if you win, they can betray you can't they?"

"You think so? But aren't every race that way? There is a possibility that anyone can betray anyone but if you think like that then you won't be able to trust anyone. You will be paralyzed with fear, always looking over your shoulder looking if there is someone there to stab you in the back. But I see your point. They are demons, I'm an elf. You think even if I beat their strongest warrior they won't respect or even accept me. You're wrong, they don't think like that. What they respect is power. Power over everything else. Demonic Law Number 1 remember?"

I look the young prince in the eye. He seems uneasy. I continue

"It's natural to want to follow the strong. It's a survival instinct. Are you doubtful of me? Do you doubt and distrust me? If so then why did you ask for my help? Why follow my plan? Isn't because there is something inside you that screams that I'm strong? Powerful? Niles wants to follow me right? Teach him the ways of the bow or something like that? Heath and Rose are wary of me especially Heath but I don't think it's because I'm an elf. It's because they just met me."

Kline's eyes become wide. He gulps and looks away

"Y-you knew about that? Did you hear?"

"No of course not. I can see it in them. The way they look at me, the way the act around me it's all in there."

"What about me? What do you see in me?" he asks in a whisper. I put a hand on his shoulder and he looks me in the eye

"You are going to do great things for your people. You care for them. You respect them. That is why your team has complete faith in you. They can see greatness in your future. You just have to grow and learn."

After a few minutes the rest of the team arrives. They told me that they found a few dwarves who are willing to leave and settle in Kline's kingdom if we can get them out of here. I told them what happened when we met the succubus general.

"They won't need to move when I win this duel."

They look at each other, plainly nervous about the whole thing but they don't argue about it. I remember something and I take out 9 rings. 5 silver rings and 4 onyx rings. I point at the silver rings

"These rings will raise your poison resistance." I point to the onyx rings

"These rings will prevent you from mental domination. Now we relax until tomorrow noon and enjoy our guest status."

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I spent almost a whole day to prepare. I cleaned out my bow, my daggers, took out a couple of rings, and meditated until the time finally arrives.

We were lead to a big coliseum. Apparently the demons were here long enough to have conquered the whole dwarven kingdom, make the dwarves built a coliseum, and made a couple of gladiator type matches against other creatures they captured near the area or themselves. The coliseum was mostly full of dwarves, families grouped together. Kline and his team got the best seat in the house. Demons who don't have to be sentries or guards are seated here and there: Excited to see their general tear up some elf.

When I arrived Zellia was already in the middle of the coliseum. She wore black full plate armor with red fiery outlines. She wields a black spear and she has a sword on her back. I on the other hand are wearing a leather armor that raises my resistance to slashing attacks, underneath it is a chainmail that protects me from magical attacks, my bow that is enchanted with lightning element, endless quiver, sheathed at my leg is a dark blue dagger that has lightning enchantment and finally 3 rings that help me boost my resistance to fire, lightning and ice spells, a ring that helps me regenerate and a ring that has resistance on status effects.

The coliseum becomes eerily quiet. The audience is waiting for us to make a move. Zellia speaks and asks me

"I hope you already said goodbye to your friends over there because you are going to be my boy toy until I'm done and sick with you."

I just shrug in response to her. She smiles and takes her stance holding her spear. I get into a shooting stance, get an arrow and pull it without letting go. A few heartbeat passes.

'This world has skills and techniques that doesn't exist in YGGDRASIL. As long as I don't get cocky and don't rush the fight I won't lose. Observe the opponent, learn its tricks, wait for the moment, and strike. Hunting 101'

She lowers her body and charges me with amazing speed. I shoot her with 4 arrows in quick succession in response. She dodges to the right to evade the first one, deflects the other 2 with her spear and dodges to the left to evade the last one but loses her momentum but not enough to stop her so she slices her spear downward to attack. I jump back a couple of steps to avoid her strike. The attack shatters the ground where I was before.

Cheers erupted from the demon audience. Demons shouting, roaring, a few demons even shoot fire into the sky.

"You're fast." Zellia says with a smile on her face. I nod in acknowledgement

"Nice destructive power. Again?"

I put my bow in my inventory and take out the dark blue dagger and I charge her. She swipes at my head but I weave out of the way. I slice at her with the dark blue dagger twice but she defended both with her spear so I aimed at her fingers with an upward slice. She saw the attack and defended against it but gave me an opening to punch her in the face. There wasn't much force in the punch to blow her away but it has enough force to make her stagger back. She swipes at me with her spear to prevent me from following up and I jump back.

Cheers erupted again from the audience but much louder this time because the dwarves and Kline's team are cheering with the demons now. Even Buster has his front paws in the balcony of the coliseum howling.

Zellia swipes at her nose and it came out a little bloody. She smiles again but this time her smile is a little demonic, full of malice and cruelty.

She charges me again and she thrust the spear at me. I evaded it and took a step back but she followed through and she thrust the spear at me again and this time it's a little faster. I evaded to the right, to the left but still her spear kept following me. She feints a thrust to the right and I fell for it. She thrust her spear at my head but I recovered enough and with a twisting of my head so I only got a scratch at left cheek. She took advantage of my blind spot that her attack created so she kick me at my waist that blew me out a few feet and rolled a few more. The kick was powerful enough to hurt but not enough to break ribs.

The dwarves and Kline's team gasped while the demons roared their cheer to their general. Not waiting for me to recover Zellia threw her spear at me. I almost didn't see it because of the dust so I only managed to roll out of the way. Zellia was closed our distance and she drew her sword to deliver an overhead strike. I saw it and decided to tackle her. The tackle blew out her air and her sword fell out of her hands. I stabbed the dark blue dagger into her sides. As the dagger met her armor the metal screeched and gave way to her body. I can feel her muscles tearing as I drove the dagger into her sides. I also activated the lightning enchantment so that her muscles would spasm and be temporarily paralyzed. Her body shook a little and she drop down to her knees. I got up and delivered an uppercut to her chin that sent her flying away.

The dwarves and Kline's team are now on their feet cheering and Buster are howling like crazy. The coliseum roared with cheers. Zellia got up and took out the dagger I impaled in her.

"It's time for you to get serious don't you think? Otherwise I would kill you before you unleash your true form"

Zellia smiled to that and laughed. The dwarves and Kline's team got confused but the demons sensed what was about to happen so their cheers became louder.

"I guess it's time to finish this. You've fought valiantly. I guess I won't be able to enjoy your body because it will be crushed to the ground." While saying this, Zellia's body starts to contort and deform. Her muscles start to increase and her armor seems to be fused with her giving her skin a dark complexion with a fiery outline. Her 4 horns start to grow in size and branch out. At the end of her transformation her horns looks like a deer's horn due to the branches. She also grew a tail that ended with a sharp point. As she said the word "ground" her voice became deeper and her transformation became complete.

All the audience but the demons gasped at this sudden transformation. A few of them starts to cry, terrified of the demon that faced the elf.

"You are right. It is time to finish" I withdrew my bow and sheathed my dagger.

Zellia roared and charged me.

[Arrow Barrage I]

I shot her with arrows after arrows at an amazing speed. She deflected with her arms confident that my arrow won't pierce her. I switched targets from her body, to her left leg, to her face, to her body again and then to her right leg to keep her guessing.

[Arrow Barrage II]

My arrows get stronger and faster now. Zellia now has to stop her charge to focus her attention on deflecting my arrows. Frustrated she roared and threw a [Fireball] at me. I evaded but did not stop attacking. This went on for a few seconds. Zellia's one hand throwing fireballs at me the other deflecting arrows, but I can shoot more arrows than she can shoot her [Fireball]. Desperate to create a breathing room and a chance to attack she aimed her [Fireball] at the ground where I'm standing. I saw the change in direction of the [Fireball].

[Magic Breaker III]

My arrow pierced her [Fireball] collecting it's element and piercing 1/3rd of the arrow to Zellia's abdomen. The magic arrow also released the [Fireball] contained in it that caused Zellia to stagger back, drop to her knees and finally drops to her sides.

Silence pierced the coliseum. The demons can't believe that their general lost even though she released her true form. The dwarves stunned by what happened and can't believe what they are seeing. Only Kline, his team and Buster cheered for a few seconds. Their cheers seemed to wake up the dwarves and they started to cheer too. Those demons with wings flies to the behind Zellia, the others started running to follow them. I walked towards Zellia, who transformed to her previous form, and asked

"Do you need a healing potion?"

Zellia panting heavily answered even though clearly still in pain

"No sir, I just need a few moments to close my wounds."

I nodded and waited for her. The cheers died down and get replaced by confusion and uncertainty. Maybe they were afraid of the demons waiting for their general's command to attack the elf who just won an unbelievable battle. After a few minutes Zellia finally managed to close up her wounds and started to shakily get up. Unsteady on her feet she announced

"In accordance to the 1st Demonic Law, the winner of this duel Sir-"

"Jake Valnan"

"Sir Jake Valnan won the rights to command Zellia of the 4th horn and her army. All hail to Sir Valnan"

Zellia drops to her knees and bows to me. Seeing this the demons behind her started to do the same.

"I accept your offer and be henceforth known as the Valnan Knights."

"Glory to the Valnan Knights. All hail Sir Jake Valnan."

The sounds of the demons swearing fealty to me shook the audience to their trance. Buster howled, Kline cheered and everyone followed suit. Glory to the Valnan Knights indeed.

Chapter 4  
After I won the duel with Zellia, the dwarven kingdom wanted to bury and honor their dead. Amazingly there are only a handful of deaths from the demon invasion, mostly were accidents from the panic and commotion of the attack. The warriors were stripped of their equipment and were able to stay with their families. Once that was done the festivities of celebrating their freedom began. When I learned that dwarves are particularly fond of alcohol, I gave Kline the Unlimited Wine Bottle and let him pour out wine until the dwarves drink wine until they can't stand anymore, drink wine until they puke their guts out and finally until they get passed out drunk. Miraculously there is no recorded alcohol consumption related deaths in the history of the dwarven kingdom ever. The one alcohol related death was only when someone drowned while they were passed out on alcohol and he was celebrated as a hero. It seems that the average dwarf can drink insidious amounts of alcohol and not die. The festivities lasted about 3 days. On the afternoon of the 3rd day I was told that the dwarves in-charge wanted to talk to me.

I was lead again to the same room where I first met Zellia. Inside the room sat 8 dwarves. When I was last here there were only 7 chairs. I asked Zellia about it and she said that she wanted to seat in the middle so she got rid of one. 'Pfft Succubi' Once I entered the room the murmuring dwarves got quiet-and scared. It is hard to see their faces because of their facial hair. At least some of them have brown hair color. I watched them cough, squirm in their seat and throw daggers with their eyes to-

'Of course. Of course.'

"Leave us Zellia" a thought occurred "bring Kline here"

Zellia bowed to me, bowed to them and left. The awkwardness in the room was lessened greatly but not completely.

*cough cough* the dwarf seated on the far left began

"Master Elf, I am the High Priest of Earth Golguid Stormgrog, I lead this kingdom's magics. Please have a seat." After I sat, it is time for introductions.

"Thank you. I'm Jake Valnan. I met Prince Kline on his way over here and he asked me for help."

"Is that so? We thank you then." said another dwarf "I'm Matdrarlig Copperhead. I'm the head of the Merchant's Guild. I have a close relation with the boy, ahh here he is now."

The young prince entered the room and bowed and sat beside me.

"Good Afternoon young man. Thank you for your concern over us."

"Pay it no heed Master Matdrarlig. It was all thanks to Master Valnan."

"Yes him. Who the hell is this elf?"asked a gruff voice

"Master Secretary! Watch your tone, this man saved us." Reproached Master Copperhead.

"It is perfectly understandable Master Cop—" he stopped me

"Please Master Elf, call me Matdrarlig." I nod my head in acknowledgement

"—Master Matdrarlig. After all I defeated the general of the demon's army. I understand your wariness and distrust but you don't have to worry, they won't cause you trouble from now on."

"Yes well, thank you for that but we still have ask how you are able to assure us that?

"Since I defeated Zellia in singles combat, they are now bound to me and they will follow my will."

My response seems to relax them to a degree, which was good. 'That wasn't the whole truth but they didn't need to know that'

"I understand, they are primal creatures like you after all." Said Master Stormgrog. "We have been sidetracked, let me resume the introductions. I am Golguid Stormgrog, the High Priest of Earth. I oversee lead this kingdom of our divine and arcane magic."

Other than his rich brown hair, he is hard to tell him apart from everyone at a first glance especially with them sitting as one can only see their heads. As I watched him though, I noticed that a couple of his hair and his beard are braided and inserted into wooden beads. The beads vary in color and size. Master Stormgrog has white, blue, red and brown beads. As I noticed this I carefully observed the other dwarves.

"I'm Matdrarlig Copperhead. I'm the head of the Merchant's Guild. Other than overseeing the kingdom's trade I'm also in charge of our foreign affairs."

Similar to Master Stormgrog, Master Matdrarlig also beaded his brown hair and beard. He wore gold beads and 2 silver beads; he wore them alternately gold being the first from the top.

"I am Hadgrotrude Hornmaul ,Master Forger. I'm tasked with controlling the quality and quantity of our forged products"

Master Hornmaul has a soothingly slow voice. Unlike the previous Masters, she braided her black beard to fit a golden ring that branched into three braided beards that has black,red,yellow and silver beads.

"Thranmut Oakbranch at your service. I'm the Commander-in-Chief. I'm in charge of the military and security of our kingdom, although in light of recent events I will have to whip my boys into shape."

Unlike the previous dwarves who kept long but well groomed hair and beard, Master Oakbranch kept his hair and beard relatively short and in disarray. His hair stand out this way and that, his bushy beard is beaded with brown, grey, orange, white beads.

"I'm Vorbaeg Marblerock. Since I am the Director of Food Production I have the misfortune of finding and accommodating food that these miserable people shove down their throat. I curse my title." The other dwarves shake their heads.

"Vorbaeg please not here, we have guests."

"Oh you shut your mouth Rammie. It's your fault my jobs harder. Protein, we need a lot of protein because we fight and train all the time he says. If it were up to me I'd feed your soldiers lizards and toads, that's your protein."

Surly and grumpy, you'd think that the food this man cooks would be as sour as his attitude. However based on the food he cooked on the first day of the festivities, it's not only delicious but healthy as well. His beard is beaded with different shades of white. Based on the hue of the beads, I'm guessing two of the beads represent the tusk of a wild boar and a deer.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." cheh is Master Marblerock's response "I am the Brewmaster, Bhadraebena Snowarm. Thank you for giving us wine for our festivities."

"Please Master Snowarm, no need to thank me. The wine sure is plenty but it is nothing special."

"Be that is may, it is still an important commodity in our community, so thank you."

Master Snowarm's voice is gentle and soft. Her beard braids are bright red, red, dark red and brown. Her twinkling eyes indicated she was smiling.

"I'm Jadrobena Nightforged, the Master of Caves and Mines. I protect and lead our mining industry and resource extraction."

Perhaps due to her power, or perhaps as thanks, her beads are significantly more valuable compared to those of her colleagues. Her beads are consisted of glass, ruby, emerald and amethyst.

"Yadgrod Barbedfury the Cabinet Secretary"

His black hair and beard are interspaced with streaks of white. Unlike the previous dwarves, his beads weren't painted. His beads are consisted of wood, stone, glass and bone.

"It is an honor to meet you Dwarven Councilors. I am Jake Valnan. I am a traveler and a scholar and as such I belong to no tribe. I want to see the world and the bounties it has to offer. In my recent travels I've come across Prince Kline and answered his call for help. Please address me however you like"

"Thank you; it is also an honor to meet you Master Valnan." answered Master Stormgrog."We asked you here so that we can thank you properly for saving us. It may be that Prince Kline brought you here but nevertheless we wanted to show our appreciation. We wanted to offer you a reward of your choosing and it will be yours as long as we can give it."

This is perfect. I need a room to settle down for a while to test a few things.

"I will need a considerably large room. I have to settle down for the foreseeable future to do some research. Like I said, I'm not only a traveler but also a scholar. I mostly make my own equipment and provisions."

"Is that so Master Valnan? Do you make your own potions?"

"Yes Master Oakbranch. I know a little alchemy and pharmacy, enough to make what I need but not enough to improve it."

"Do you also service your own weapons?" asks the Master Forger  
"Yes Master Hornmaul. I have never let one of my weapons be in a state of disrepair. My life is on the line after all"

"Does anybody object in lending Master Valnan a room and let him use a few facilities so he can make his own provisions?" Master Stormgrog asks the Council. Nobody objected.

"It is agreed then." I nodded my thanks to Master Stormgrog

I thought the meeting was over and started to get up, however it seems the Councilors have another agenda because Master Stormgrog gestured for me to stop and remain sitting.

"There is another matter Master Valnan. We thought you were one of his prince's men but since you are not can we ask you for help?" ask Master Stormgrog

I nodded and gestured for him to continue

"Since our defeat to the demons, we became painfully aware of our army's inadequacy. Although our bows are superior to other kingdom, our archers are terrible. They weren't even trained, they were just extra soldiers. We grew overconfident because we managed to defend our kingdom with these conditions up until now. We would very much like you to teach us the ways of the bow." Master Stormgrog faces to Prince Kline

"Prince we would like to request your kingdom to send some soldiers here to become sentries for a short time while we train ourselves. We have friendly relations with your kingdom so I hope you can provide defense for us for a while."

"I have no reservations in teaching you how to use a bow but honestly Councilor I have no idea how to teach. No one taught me how to use the bow, when I come to I already knew how to use a bow." 'Technically right' "at the most I can only teach you basics and a few tricks."

"That would be plenty Master Valnan." says Master Stormgrog. He turns to ask Kline.

"Can you help us Prince?"

"I'm sorry Master Stormgrog but we can't send you soldiers. The Beastmen kingdom are going to attack us soon and we need to prepare. I'm so sorry Councilors." Prince tries to get up and bow his head but I stop him.

"I can help you. I can lend you my army."

The Councilors gets surprised and they squirm a little in their seats.

"I understand your uneasiness Councilors. I will give Master Oakbranch command so you don't have to worry."

"But will they listen to me?" asks Master Oakbranch

"I will order them to do so. If anyone disobeys you tell me immediately so I can kill them so insubordination will be avoided."

The Councilor's eyes get wide and they were left speechless for a while.

"I-is that so Master Valnan? Alright the—

"What about their food? Who will feed them?" ask Master Marblerock

"They don't need to eat as often as you and me and when they get hungry they will hunt at the forest. Most of them don't need meat, they are self sustaining so they will not add to your burdens Master Marblerock."

"Does anyone have any other concern?" Master Stormgrog asks the Council. When no one raised any questions he continued "We will accept your offer then Master Valnan."

"Now then, what are you going to offer me in exchange for my services?"

"What do you need Master Valnan?"

"Although I can do many things, I don't know how to make weapons. That's what I would like in exchange for my services, your finest weapons and armor. I have a Dwarven Smith who is an exceptional rune smith. How about it Master Hornmaul, will you make me something magnificent?"

"The art of Rune Smithing has gone a little stale. It is true that it would be faster if someone just enchants a weapon of engraving it with runes but runes last forever while enchantments have durations. I have read a book that referenced a legendary Runesmith who can engrave legendary runes that enchanters can't beat or even replicate."

"Very well then, I accept your payment. We will discuss the finer points in another time but for now let us celebrate and join the festivities."

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When the festivities finally died down and everyone went home to sleep, I went to my room in the city. The Dwarven Council offered me 3 residences; 2 rooms inside the Royal Palace and 1 room inside the dwarven city. I chose the room in the city because it is closer to the blacksmithing workshop. The room was slightly small, I can reach the roof if I stand on tiptoes but I guess to a dwarf this would be a spacious room. I settled in my comfortable room and thought about the things I wanted to create. 'I need a way to replenish my potion stock. I noticed that their potion has a blue color and has incredibly slow healing abilities. There's a recipe for minor up to greater healing potion but I have to look for the ingredients and test if I can make it here. In YGGDRASIL all you have to do is find the ingredients and go to the potion station and it will be complete but here there will be a process to it. I need to find out what that is. I wonder if I can improve my skills here. I have hit the level cap in YGGDRASIL and I probably won't level up anymore but skills on the other hand maybe I can be better in them. I hope that is the case. I also nee—' my train of thought was interrupted by a knock on my door.

"Come in the door is open."

Kline and Niles came inside. Outside I can see that the rest of their team is waiting there.

"Good evening Prince Kline what can I do for you?"

"Good evening Master Valnan. We are here to ask a favor of you. I told my team that you would teach the dwarven army while you were here and we were wondering if you would also teach us. Niles here is specially excited to learn from you."

As I look at the two of them I can see hope and determination in their eyes. Hope that maybe they can grow strong and determination to make that happen. I smile at them and said

"Very well, you can join in. You can be my star students however—" I raised a finger "Don't assume that will stay forever, If I see someone better than you then you will be replaced. I value talent greatly and I will nurture them and help them grow."

"Thank you very much Master Valnan or that would be Sir Valnan from now on." Chimed both Kline and Niles. I smiled at them 'Did they practice that?'

"Go on then, I need to sleep as I have much to do tomorrow. You guys sleep too, this is my first lesson then. Take care of your body, rest when you need to. Don't take your body for granted or it will betray you."

"When are you going to teach Sir Valnan?" asks Niles

"I don't know yet, I have to coordinate the schedule with Master Oakbranch but at the very least tomorrow I'm going to be free. Why do you ask?"

"We are going back to the kingdom tomorrow. At the very least the journey will take a couple of days."

"Why not use the flying demons to help you travel. They won't be able to fly you the whole way but they will at least be able to shave a considerable amount of journey time. Call Zellia for me so that I can give the order. Oh and will you take Buster with you, I might be too busy to accommodate him. This way he will be fed and he will get plenty of exercise."

"I understand Sir Valnan. Well then we will go back to the castle and rest."said Prince Kline

"Goodnight Sir Valnan."said Niles

"Goodnight"

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As soon as I wake up I opened my inventory and got my Encyclopedia; an item from YGGDRASIL that every new adventurer got once they started. The item recorded every quest you finished, every little trivia about the creatures you met, they even kept record of the monsters you defeated although most people only got their name, HP and MP but if you were a max level Ranger you can use [scan] and even the stats, resistances and weakness of the monster will be recorded. If it was a boss monster then most likely a little trivia about it would show up too.

I easiest to create would be minor healing potion so that's where I would start. The ingredients are 1 mushroom, 2 gels and 1 bottle. I also my alchemy kit and was about to test whether I can create minor healing potion when a knock came from the door.

"Who is it?" I ask

"Master Valnan, it's Zellia can I enter?"

"Yes the door is open. Come in."

Zellia came in and bowed to me. Ever since I defeated her in our duel, she stopped wearing the red dress that she wore when I met her. She now wears a practical looking clothes; black long sleeve shirt, brown cotton pants and black boots. The biggest difference I can detect is that she somehow turned off her allure. Before she was radiating it like the sun, you can feel it in your skin but now she almost looks like a regular demon. 'I wonder what happened. Ehh this is better, people around her won't give in to their lust anymore.'

"What is your command Sir Valnan?"

"Zellia I have given the commander-in-chief the right to command my army, of course you are exempted in that. You will be protecting the mountain. I assume most of your army can at least take a humanoid form? Those who can't will be stationed inside the mountain. Those who can will be patrolling outside. If anyone wants to enter the dwarven kingdom then explain to them that you were hired to protect the kingdom and under the command of Master Oakbranch. Don't start aggressive action, you can defend yourselves but don't kill the enemy. You can heavily wound the enemy if he would not back down and not attack you and you will take them as prisoners. He would be your equal. Tell the army to treat him as a general. Any insubordination to him will be viewed as insubordination towards me and will be dealt accordingly. If they have any large complains then they can come to me to voice it otherwise if it is a simple matter then I will leave it to you. Talk to the Master Oakbranch and resolve it yourselves."

"Understood, I will deliver your orders to the army."

"Oh and Zellia tell everyone to not bother me for the day, I will be experimenting for a bit and I don't need distractions. I won't need food either."

"Understood Sir Valnan, I will relay your request."

After Zellia left, I continued my experiment. I took out the alchemy devices out of the alchemy kit. The most important is the alchemy box; an 8x6x10 in metal box that has a reinforced glass at the front and opens up at the top. It has all sorts of buttons and knobs to adjust the settings such as transmute rate, transmutation factor, mana convertion, mana infusion and other settings. Another item in the alchemy kit is the tubes and clamps that you will attach to the side of the alchemy box, clamp into your fingers and infuse mana to your creation. I have 8 tubes and 8 clamps. Different items require different mana infusion rate.

Before i start I took out the Ring of Sustenance and Ring of Mana Regeneration which can only be used when in towns and not in battle. I placed the ingredients inside the alchemy box, adjusted the settings to like the instruction says and started to the process. After a few seconds the process ended and I took out the result. The product looks odd and a bit different to the Minor Healing Potion I'm familiar with. I took out the Ring of Lesser Appraisal and the results is an unknown potion.

' Unknown Potion – a defective potion that will heal for about 5HP and has possible negative side effects which are not affected by resistances.'

It seems the potions here need new alchemical formula. The only way to find out is to try making it until I get it right. After a few tries I finally managed to make an exact Minor Healing Potion which recovers your HP by 50. My total HP is 8,694 which is in the low side compared to other Lv100 characters. I know a heteromorphic tank character that boosted his HP to almost 100,000. Of course with equipment I can boost my HP but that is my bare HP. I got up and went outside the mountain for a breath of fresh air.

It seems that I worked until the whole day. The orange sky indicated that it was twilight. I breathed the air deeply. It is such a relaxing experience I don't think I ever experienced on earth. Natural air is better than what we have back home. I inhaled slowly for a while, held it in and exhaled slowly. I have a lot to do to replenish my potion stock. I also need to find ingredients. The road ahead of me is a long one but I think I'm going to enjoy the feeling of making something. In YGGDRASIL it was over in a flash but here you have to work hard and discover.

I smile, the excitement of the future is exhilarating. I need to find Zellia. I need to use something i haven't used in the last 5 years. It is a good time to be alive

Chapter 5  
While in the entrance tunnel of the mountain I noticed something; I stink. Looks like the Ring of Sustenance can't stop me from sweating. I need to take a bath since I assumed showers haven't been invented yet. I went back into my room, collected by equipment and cleaned up a bit. I twisted my nose at the smell of the room. I just noticed that the room now smells kind of….musty? Is that the word? The combined smell of sweat, dirt and mushroom; I will name this new smell Mushdisweat. I chuckled at my own stupidity and went back outside. I stopped a nearby dwarf and asked if the river from the forest came from this mountain. Apparently it did and I asked for directions. He even gave me a small soap and a tiny vial of shampoo. What a nice man

The waterfall connecting the river to the mountain was hidden by trees and rocks. If I hadn't asked for directions from that dwarf I might not have been able to find it. Even though it's nighttime now I can still see relatively well thanks to the moonlight. 'Natural moonlight, haven't seen that in a while.' I disrobed, went under the waterfall and let the water fall on me for a bit. 'I guess this means that I have to take baths and wash my clothes regularly.' In YGGDRASIL bathing and laundry was also essential part of the game as the smell of sweat and blood will attract monster attention however you don't really have to do anything. Just press the button and viola you and your clothes are clean. 'How delightfully mundane.' you thought

While washing my body, I noticed that I have an earring on the right ear. 'Weird, I don't remember putting an earring on my character.' I took it out to inspect it. The earring was gold, studded with various gems; expensive looking but nothing extraordinary. Suddenly my skin started to glow, my wispy blond hair started to move as if a gentle wind was blowing through it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and took a look. There are all kinds of animals there watching me; deers, bunnies, rats, snakes, wolves and birds. 'What are they doing? Are they watching me? Isn't their bedtimes yet? Perverts'

A voice calling out to me shook me out of my contemplation.

"Sir Valnan? Where are you? A dwarf said you were going here" called out Zellia

"I'm here Zellia. I'm taking a bath. There are animals watching me, I don't know what's going on."

"Is that so? Maybe they jus-"

Zellia's eyes went wide as soon as she saw me. She suddenly knelt and bowed down and the 2 demons accompanying her did the same although was shaking quite a bit. Her body's jerking, shoulders shaking going up and down, her head twitching. Alarmed I took out a cotton shirt and a cotton pants and went to her. I touched her shoulder and she looked up to me. As soon as she saw my face she went down on the ground and her body started convulsing. She moaned as if in pain. I didn't know what was going on? 'What's happening to her? What changed since she last saw me? Oh right the earring.' I put it on again and lifted Zellia's head.

"Zellia look at me. It's ok now."

It took a while but she finally calmed down. After a couple of seconds after calming down, she realized that I was holding her and then she pushed herself off me but I noticed that her face has turned red. Was she blushing? I looked at the 2 demons she came with but I can't see their faces because their heads are bowing deeply I can almost see their backs. Zellia finally remembered something, mumbled something and suddenly left. Puzzled I sent the 2 demons after her to check up on her.

'What is this earring? Why did I glow after taking it off? Why did Zellia react that way after seeing me?' while I was thinking I smelled something odd. Mixed with the smell of fresh water and the forest are the smell of sweat and something familiar. I haven't smelled that in a while. I closed my eyes in concentration. After a while realization dawned on me. I remember that smell; last time I smelled it was 6 or 7 years ago? The smell of… holy shit did she just..? I haven't been able to do that for at least 5 years. Anyways I need to find out what happened when I took out the earring. Maybe the Encyclopedia has the answers.

When I got back in the mountain I immediately went to my room, closed the door and took out the Encyclopedia. After flipping through the book, I finally found it.

-True Elf Lord-

One of the ancient creatures that first roamed Midgard; tasked with protecting the forest of the earth that provides sustenance to its dwellers. Spread across the realm, True Elf Lords birthed the first elves. Although similar in appearance and stature, the birthed elves shied away from their lords. True Elf Lords emits a commanding aura that affects different creatures in all sorts of different ways. The True Elf Lords saddened by the response of their birthed elves seek out the help of other Primal Beings. The Demon Lords suggested to destroy them and to just create another. The Primordial Beasts suggested that they should lead their creation with fear. These suggestions did not please the True Elf Lords. The First Dwarves said that they can probably make an item so suppress their commanding aura so that they can rule them without their creations shirking away from them but warned the True Elf Lords that their abilities would be hindered quite a bit. The True Elf Lords agreed and asked for the assistance of the First Dwarves. Eventually all of the primal beings gave birth to their own species each wearing an enchanted item unique to each other. The True Elf Lords wore rings, the Demon Lords wore amulets, the Primordial Beasts wore belts and the First Dwarves wore gauntlets.

Eventually Midgard birthed different types of creatures and the population grew. As the passage of time continued to move forward, the lesser creatures evolved and became better than their forefathers. The Primal Beings thought they their existence hindered their creation's progress so they decided to relocate themselves to different realms and stay there and watch over their creations. Some of them descend to Midgard to live among their creations for a while; enjoying the company of their creations and from time to time. During times of crisis the Primal Beings reveal their true forms to the leader of their creations to help them and guide them.

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'Huh. That's interesting' True Elf Lords has 6 racial skills, of course you can get 5 skills but I only chose 3: Penetrate Resistance, The First Elven Weapon and finally True Awakening. Penetrate Resistance has an active and passive effect: the passive effect grants the ability to deal 1 elemental damage normally even if the enemy has complete resistance to it while the active effect buffs the party 4/5th of the its power, lasts 3 minutes and has a cooldown of 6 hours. The First Elven Weapon grants me the ability to ignore 1/3rd of the enemy's overall defense. True Awakening is a buff skill that boost the targets damage by 40 percent, 30 percent boost in elemental resistance, and 35 percent decreased damage taken. True Awakening has last for 2 minutes and has a cooldown of 10 minutes. I leveled up Penetrate Resistance and True Awakening shaving their cooldown period and increasing the buff duration.

I didn't know a hidden ability manifested in this world. I guess it's time to learn a few things about this world. I called Zellia to my room and asked her to bring a map. When she arrived she was blushing. 'I guess anyone would be embarrassed if that happened to them' I decided to pretend I didn't notice to let her save some face.

"Zellia how are you?"

"I'm fine sir. I'm sorry about what happened earlier, I don't know what came over me." I smiled internally when she said "came".

"It's alright. Now sit" I gestured to the chair opposite of mine. She brought out a map and spread it on the table. 'This is it? It's just a map of a continent.' "Is this the largest map there are? Are there maps of the world? This is barely a continent; at very least this is just a country map." Zellia looked at me puzzled

"Continent sir? Country? I'm sorry I don't what these words mean." maybe nobody has invented ships yet? Or are there massive creatures in the sea, swallowing up anyone who dared to sail?

"It's alright, just tell me what you know. This mountain range I assume is the dwarven kingdom and there are more kingdoms in other mountains?" I pointed at the right side of the map

"Yes, this is the Ninorum kingdom. I think there are 4 other dwarven kingdoms along this mountain range, the Vanadal kingdom, the Puadhal kingdom and finally the Wemach kingdom."

"What about this right here? Does anyone live in this little patch of land of the right side of the mountain?"

"There are a handful of orc and goblin tribes there Sir. They don't attack this kingdom because they can't find the entrance. Mostly they eat fish but sometimes they wonder at the west side of the forest."

"What about other kingdoms? You know Kline's kingdom right? And I know of the beastmen kingdom. Where are they on this map?"

"Prince Ferida's kingdom is the Clovea Kingdom. They rule mostly here." She points to the center of the map. "The beastmen are over here" she points to the southern part of the map. "I don't know what's behind them sir. At the north of the Clovea Kingdom is the Behzuhr Kingdom. Draconic people live there."

"Humanoid dragons?" I interrupted her.

"Yes sir. They have a mostly friendly relationship with the Clovea and Ninorum kingdom. The largest kingdom is the Cerxuhr kingdom. All sorts of creatures live there; humans, elves, dwarves. They are the largest kingdom in this land." She points to the eastern most part of the map

"There are a elven dwellings scattered around the land sir." She points several places on the map. "They don't let anyone in their village except merchants they know and it is very hard to talk to them." she looks at me embarrassed again and tries to bow but I stop her.

"It's alright Zellia. Is that why the beastmen don't use the forest to get close to the Clovea Kingdom? There are elven villages there?"

"Yes sir. They tried before but the elves crushed their forces and they haven't tried since."

"Alright how about money, what are the monetary system here?

"We use bronze, silver and gold coins. 100 bronze coins are equal to 1 silver coin. 100 silver coins are equal to 1 gold coin."

"Alright do you have any of them? I'd like to see." She opened a pouch and she showed me. This doesn't look like YGGDRASIL currency, looks like I can't use YGGDRASIL currency here.

"Are you well versed in magic?"  
"I'm afraid not sir. No one taught me magic, I just know how to use it."

"Hmmm that's what I'm afraid of. It's the same with my skills." A lie of course, there is a bit of tutorial every time you acquire a skill.

"Thank you Zellia. Look for Master Stormgrog. Ask him when he is free and when can I talk to him."

Zellia got up and bowed to me. I didn't miss that she omitted the demon kingdom. They are not my concern right now. 'Look at this map, it's almost bare. This is exactly like the first days of YGGDRASIL; you have to explore to find out.'

When YGGDRASIL started exploring was the name of the game As time when on though the focus changed from explore to level up. That's also when I started my YGGDRASIL walkthrough website. I made some money of the website. Naturally I didn't post any secrets just the map, job change quest, item requirements, dungeon outlines, information on the dungeon mobs and information on the dungeon bosses. Information is currency in YGGDRASIL and people were happy to pay to get some credible information. I was known in YGGDRASIL thanks to my website and not on my character. Some people did know me through my character; friends, party members I needed to clear a dungeon. Then they expanded and added servers. The PK server was fairly popular. I never really did care for that sort of thing; I rarely went to the PvP arena anyways. Sure I would join tournaments, and I won a few, but I didn't actively try to seek out other players. I heard other players specifically hunted players who played in a different race. Degenerates I thought of them. Sure they were strong in PvP but nearly useless in dungeon battles. As the popularity of YGGDRASIL grew, the popularity of my website also grew. In the hay day of my website I got nearly 1.5 million views per day; that was sweet.

While I was reminiscing, someone knocked on my door.

"Master Valnan, May I come in?" asks Master Stormgrog

"Master Stormgrog! Come in please." Master Stormgrog came in and I gestured for him to sit.

" General Zellia told me you were asking about magic. I was bored so I came here. Now what do you want to know?" I can see a sparkle in his eye. That is good, the best teachers are the ones who are passionate about the subject.

"Yes Master Stormgrog. I was wondering how does magic work in this world?" Master Stormgrog nodded

"We use magic by channeling the power of the world. We first need to connect with the world and then we are able to channel its power. We materialize the world's power by using our mana. The broad term for the people who uses magic is Magic Caster. There are specialties of course such as Arcane Magic, Divine Magic, Dark Magic and Spiritual Magic. I heard the draconic people have their own magic but I'm not sure. There is also creation magic which created salt, sugar, and other spices."

"Salt? They use magic to produce salt?" I said surprised

"Yes Master Valnan."

"Salt cannot be harvested naturally and has to be created by magic?"

"As far as I know Master Valnan that is the case." I was perplexed by this. Are their seas not salty? If I think about it, the world where I came from and this world are fundamentally different. Their science would be colored by magic and would vastly be different from what I know. 'Interesting'

"There is also warrior specific magic. They call it Martial Arts. It uses mental stamina instead of mana."

"Really? What can Martial Arts do?" I ask, interested in the skills exclusive in this world.

"They can strengthen their bodies, they can increase their speed and reaction time, they can fortify their minds to defend against mental attacks that sort of thing."

"Are Martial Arts only for defense? Are there no martial art attacks?"

"There is Master Valnan but if I remember correctly they tend to differentiate from warrior to warrior. Martial Arts can be modified to suit ones needs."

"Martial Arts are pretty adaptive it seems." Are there bow specific type Martial Arts too? I hope there is, I'm excited to see it. I need to find someone who is well versed in Martial Arts and interview them "How long does a normal person need to learn magic?" I continued

"Normally 8 years Master Valnan, however if you have a talent for magic it can be halved to 4 years."

"Really? That is wonderful then, and then you can continue to improve your magic." another unique aspect of this world. Maybe that is the difference between a game and reality, sure other characters can do better than others but that is mainly a racial thing like elves has +2 effect on archery type attacks and undead magic characters has +2 on necromancy. I guess this is my real world now where talented individuals are born.

"Yes indeed. I read that a previous Forgemaster has a metal bending talent which allowed him to mold metals and create weapons and armors faster and with better quality."

"What about you Master Stormgrog, do you posses a talent? If you don't mind me asking that is."

"Yes I do Master Valnan, but I can't tell you what it is."

"It is alright Master Stormgrog, I understand." it must be a trump card kind of talent, or maybe a surprise type. I'm curious but it will have to do. "Let's go back to magic. What is a highest level an average person can attain?"

"A normal person can attain up to 3rd tier of magic their entire life. I guess it would be higher for those with talent but I don't know, you have to ask them."

"Thank you for answering my questions Master Stormgrog, I hope I can talk to you if I have any more questions about magic."

"You are welcome Master Valnan. Truthfully this has been a pleasant conversation and will welcome other inquiries." We both stood and shook hands. I led him out and bid him farewell.

Once again I was filled with excitement. There is this new world, brimming with treasures. I want to see it, I want to feel the treasures this world contains. These thoughts rocked me to sleep.

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After I woke up, I checked my inventory. I have enough ingredients to make just 10 more Minor Healing Potion. I need more ingredients. I can spend my time here looking for the ingredients or I can just order my soldiers to find it for me. I need a way to track them down. If they are in my party I can track them but does the party mechanics in YGGDRASIL apply here? I opened my status panel by reaching out as if I'm clicking something in the middle of the air and concentrated. A white panel where I reached out appeared in the air. I swiped at the panel towards the party status. Now I need to test if I can add party members. Time to find Zellia.

I found her outside the mountain giving orders to a winged demon. Once she was done I went to her. As she turned around she saw me and knelt down.

"Good morning Sir Valnan."

"Good morning Zellia." I gestured her to rise and she did. "Where are the other soldiers?"

"They are in the coliseum sir so that they won't bother the dwarves. Some of them are eating, others are training by fighting and others are watching them train."

"Good, let's go there but before that I need to test something. Do you want to be in my party Zellia?" confusion spread out to her face. After all I won the rights to command her and her army why would I ask her to be in my party? "Just say yes Zellia."

"U-um alright. Yes Sir Valnan." A white light flowed into her from me. Her eyes widen and she looked at her hands, then around her. Confused she asked me. "Wh-what happened sir? I suddenly feel stronger."

"Don't worry Zellia, that happens when you are in my party." I open my status panel again, swipe until I'm at the party panel and smiled. There I can see Zellia's name; Lv 40 Demon (Succubus). Swiped again to the map panel and I can see 2 blinking dots in the map with a name on top of it; me and Zellia. I smile.

"Perfect. I'll go to the coliseum, gather the sentries and then come to the coliseum with the sentries. Oh by the way, do you want to stay in my party Zellia? You can leave if you want."

"I want to stay Sir Valnan." she frowned, bit her lip and ask me "If I stay with you sir will I become stronger?"

"I hope so Zellia, otherwise you might get your general status taken from you." Zellia was shocked, and then a steely determination crossed her face.

"I won't let that happen sir." I smile at her determination and patted her in the shoulder

"Make sure it won't Zellia. I'd be very disappointed if you let yourself relax, I'm expecting great things from you." I turned around and walked. Just before I go into the entrance I looked back to her and said "See you at the coliseum."

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After arriving at the coliseum I watched at the back of the audience. No one has noticed me yet because all their attention is at the 2 demons dueling in the middle. A few demons was cheering, a few of them are betting who is going to win. The idiots are gambling. I watched the duel for a minute or so, and finally the duel looks like it was about to end. The 2 combatants are unsteady on their feet. The winged demon is attacking the other demon. The other demon was doing his best to avoid but the winged demon was slowly getting closer and closer to winning. The winged demon swing a horizontal slash but the other demon ducked underneath the slash and with his sword slashed upwards towards the winged demon's chest. He connected and blood squirted from the winged demons chest, took a step back and fell down on his back. The other demon, exhausted from the duel, fell down on his knees. Some of the audience exchanged money and I rolled my eyes at them. I teleported to the combatants to check up on them. The winning demon, who has a tail I can now see, looks up at me and tried to kneel down but in his exhausted state he just kept falling.

"What is your name soldier?" I ask him

"This is one is called Meremoch sir."

"Nice footwork you got there." I turned to the winged demon, which is now in his humanoid form, and ask him "What about you soldier?"

"I-am-Neqbuhm-sir." He wheezed after every word.

"You got careless at the end there huh? You hurried to finish him and made a big swing at the end. Carelessness is the enemy soldier. Here have some potion." I gave them each a Minor Healing Potion to help heal their wounds. They are just exhausted and don't have any life-threatening wounds.

Zellia finally arrived with the sentries. They immediately came to me and knelt down. The audience followed suit after. I waited for the combatants to get their breath back. When they did they went back where the other soldiers are and knelt down. I addressed them

"Warriors, I'm your commander Jake Valnan. All of you saw my duel with Zellia. If any of you is discontented with the fight you can fight me. You can even attack me in groups if you want." No one rose up

"Meremoch and Neqbuhm come forward." The two soldiers came to the front ahead of Zellia and knelt again. "Warriors Meremoch and Neqbuhm I saw your fight and while you are strong you must not be contented. You can join me in my party and I will train you to be stronger but if you do—" I paused to emphasize the next words "—and you betray me, I will hunt you down and kill you." I put a lot of malice and killing intent as I said it to show them that I am serious.

"So warriors Meremoch and Neqbuhm, will you join my party?" when both of them nodded I quickly followed "I need verbal answer."

"Yes sir!" answered Neqbuhm loudly

"Yes my lord" answered Meremoch

The same white light that flowed into Zellia also flew to both of the warriors. Some of the watching soldiers gasped and some of them oohed. All of them except Zellia was surprised by the light show. After the light flowed into the warriors they suddenly stood up and reacting the same way Zellia reacted. After the initial surprise the 2 warriors knelt down again and proclaimed very loudly

"We thank you for the gift of power my lord." Said Meremoch

"We will serve you faithfully to show our gratitude sir." Said Neqbuhm.

"Well said warriors, I expect your allegiance to my name and your hard work." I addressed the soldiers again. "Those who will submit to me will receive the same power Zellia, Meremoch and Neqbuhm. You can go home; I promise you no one will attack you. You are free to choose. You can bow to me and power will be given to you or you can choose to leave and serve another. However if we met in battle I will destroy you. Those who want to join form three lines." All of them got up and lined up.

It took a while for me to add the whole army to my party. '239 members huh? The largest I lead a party this big was when the whole Alien Invasion event' I wonder if I can establish a guild here like those in YGGDRASIL. It probably needs the same requirements. Or maybe I can just establish a guild, just not an YGGDRASIL guild. I have to think about it.

After I added them to the party I asked Zellia to group them into 3 groups; demons who will be sentries that will guard the mountain, demons who will train here in the coliseum and finally demons who will look for ingredients for my potion. I told her to divide the army so that there will be at least winged demons and demons who can disguise themselves as humans to each group. I also asked Zellia to identify the strongest demons in their class. I will lend them an item so that they can train faster.

When Kline and his team get back I will ask them if they want to join my party. I wonder if these demons can change job classes. If they can change their job class then we have to hunt for the item requirements. This is going to be awesome.

Chapter 6  
Author's Note

Once again I'm sorry for any grammatical errors. I'm just an amateur writer who just wants to share his idea.

The sky is clear and beautiful again this day. I hear the sound of wooden wheels of a caravan behind me. I turn around and wave to the dwarf who holds the reins of the horse.

"Good morning Mr. Blessedhead, early start today?" I ask the smiling dwarf

"Yes Sir Valnan. I have to deliver these weapons and armors to the Clovea kingdom and King Ferida ask to strengthen the defense of the palace and the city so I thought it would be best to travel to the Clovea kingdom as fast as I can."

"Is Mrs. Blessedhead not coming with you this time?"

"I wanted her to come but she wanted to stay and she said that its Yurmoun's (his first born son) time to venture out of the mountain and see the world with his father."

"Where is he then?"

"He's at the back making sure the armors and weapons are still wrapped and strapped. We can't be too careful since we can't sell broken items."

"I agree, well then have a safe trip." I wave him goodbye and he wave back. I continue to survey the sky and breathe a couple lungful of air. I whistle to Buster and he came running from the forest. I lead him to our waterfall to take a bath. This has been my routine for the last 2 weeks.

I've been busy training my army and the dwarves. The first week we did some basic training. Of course since I don't have any idea on the matter I let them do what they have always been doing. Sprinkled between breaks I will have a duel with a few warriors. Master Oakbranch said this will help the soldiers get stronger faster.

Buster, Kline and his team got back the second week. They immediately joined my party after I told them about it. Kline said he got permission from his father to train with the dwarves. The Clovea kingdom is getting ready for the war with the beastmen kingdom so they have been stockpiling weapons and armors and strengthening their defenses. I think King Ferida sent Kline here in the hopes that he will get stronger no matter how little to help him survive the upcoming battle.

I have been thinking of ways to train faster but all I came up with is a training method that will risk their lives. Training that will consist of duels much more severe than what we have been doing. In YGGDRASIL that is the only way to level up and be strong but unlike in YGGDRASIL, where the only penalty of death is losing your EXP points and a percentage of your money, this is real life where if you die it could be permanent. The dwarves and the demons don't have anyone skilled enough to cast resurrection and I found out that the resurrection spell does that guarantee revival. It uses life force of the target and if the target's life force is weak or the target doesn't want to be revived then the spell will fail. I was stunned by this revelation, another difference from YGGDRASIL.

As a result in order for us to train better we need to clear 2 conditions to secure the survival of the soldiers.

Secure a way to heal severe wounds that they will receive during training. Be it to make enough YGGDRASIL potions or look for a team of healers that has high level of heal spells.

Look for skilled enough magicians that can cast resurrection.

Even if only one of this is fulfilled then we can at least start the harsh training. The easiest condition to clear is should have been to just make enough YGGDRASIL potions that the supply will satisfy the demand but so far I think I gathered all of the mushrooms in the forest and we haven't found a slime dwelling to get enough gel. So I asked Kline about the other conditions and apparently divine magic casters skilled enough are stationed in a temple and are educated, trained and controlled in the Cerxuhr kingdom.

I asked the Council for the potion ingredients and I found out that the type of mushroom required for the potion is poisonous for dwarves so they don't touch the stuff. They don't know where the slime dwellings are either. I asked Kline but I got the same answers.

For the time being we are stuck with core training. I myself took up training with a sword. In my duels with the dwarves, demons and Kline one thing has made clear. Although I can overwhelm them with my strength and agility, I pale in comparison to their swordsmanship even while wearing the training item Broken Chain Colar and Broken Chain Armlet which supposed to give a boost in EXP in exchange for lower physical ability. I plan to wear these items in the hopes that I can still level up or at least train in something new; my swordsmanship. I need to kill monsters soon for my experiment.

After taking a bath, Buster and I went to the coliseum to train. Zellia, Kline, Perry, Niles and Neqbuhm are already there. All of them are wearing Broken Chain Armlet so they are a part of my experiment too. Zellia and Kline are doing a kind of rock paper scissors with their swords where it's supposed to train their ability to predict the enemy's movements while training their sword arm. Perry and Neqbuhm are racing around the coliseum. First going forward, next going backward and lastly going sideward. I ask Neqbuhm about that and he said that is an ancient form of demon agility training. Perry wanted to try it and she was surprisingly good. Niles was shooting arrows at a target. The first target was a few meters from him, the next was halfway across the coliseum and 3 others scattered in the audience seats.

I put on Buster's neck the Broken Chain Colar which shrinks to his size every time he wears it. After putting the training item we sparred. We spent most mornings like this. We would spar with a partner for few matches, switch partners and continue sparring or go with core training. After sparring with Buster then Zellia and finally Kline the demon and the dwarven army arrived. At first the dwarven army was cautious of the demon army even in their humanoid form but they quickly realized that they can learn something from my army.

This is how I spend my mornings. After training I take Buster outside again so that he can hunt. Sometimes I'll go hunt with him, sometimes I'll just wait for him to hunt for himself. This time I let him hunt by himself.

I noticed something to my right, I looked at the sky and I saw birds flying towards me. I squinted at them, as they passed over me I had a good look at them. I used [message] to call the sentries over to ask if they too saw the birds. They nodded. I used [message] again to contact Zellia, Kline and Niles. I also called out to Buster. They arrived in minutes.

"Are you familiar with a bird species that has black and brown feathers, has a pointed beak and has a yellow streak in the middle of it?" Zellia and Kline shake their heads but Niles narrowed his eyes in thought.

"Zellia go ask someone inside the mountain and ask them what it means when whole flocks of them flee from somewhere." Zellia nodded and entered the mountain once more. Moments pass in silence until Kline asks me

"What's the matter Sir Valnan? Is something wrong?" I look at the prince, and then at Niles.

"Niles seems to have figured it out. Tell him Niles."

"My father used to be an oricalcum adventurer and he once warned me about those birds. They are predatory birds that will attack in flocks. My father's team was once hired to deal with them because they attacked merchants in the road which was near their nest. They returned back to the guild severely wounded. The guild ended up sending 3 teams of adamantite adventurers and they managed to banish the birds." I nodded at his explanation. I filed away the knowledge that they have adamantium metals here, I have to pursue that later.

"They are called Glyrf birds. They are hard to deal with because they can use magic. They also have an impeccable sense of hearing; combine that with a somewhat intelligent mind and…" I trailed off because I saw Zellia coming over with a worried look on her face. She pretty much said the same thing about those birds.

"They only flee from their nest if there is something stronger than them at the vicinity." I looked at the sentries "Go call the army. Tell them we might be going into combat. Remind them to remove the training item." Alarm and panic spread across Kline's and Niles' faces. "Go get yourselves ready and call the rest of your team Kline." They entered the mountain again. I used [message] to contact Zellia once more. "If you arrive here before me then wait for me here. I will scout ahead." I looked at Buster "Stay here B. I'm not sure what the enemies are, I'll just go over there and have a look ok?" Buster looked uncomfortable with the idea and whined. He stayed nonetheless and I gave him a pat on the head and a good scratching behind the ears for that.

I take out Eagle eyes pendant that contain the spell [Eagle Eyes] that acts like binoculars, Hunter's Edge an armlet that hides scent and the sound of footsteps. I rushed over there to scout a potential ally or a potential enemy. I used a Forest Elf skill [Chameleon Skin] which helps me blend in the forest background. I also wore a leather armor equipment set called Nelaeryn's Saga; the set included a helm covered in small tree branches, an armor covered in leaves, an arm guard and a leg guard that looks like a tree trunk. It boosted the effect of [Chameleon Skin]. The data crystals needed for this set are very hard to acquire requiring the data crystals of the boss Nelaeryn's summon. It was worth it though; you can travel in the forest virtually unimpeded even by level 60 monsters. Of course [Chameleon Skin] works only when in non-combat phase and becomes useless when in combat mode. This set is perfect for scouting purposes.

Once satisfied that I'm ready I take off in a sprint. When I got closer to the place where I estimated the Glyrves came from I slowed down to a run, to a jog and finally to a walk. I surveyed the area carefully; nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. I climb a tree nearby to look for the Glyrves' nest but found nothing. I jumped to the next tree and still nothing. The next tree though I found the birds' nest. 'So the birds were nesting in this area. The likelihood of this nest being a normal birds' nest is slim judging by to how predatory Glyrves are. No one is here though. Could the creatures that scared the Glyrves moved? Or maybe they were just passing by." I drop down off the tree and continued to survey the area.

I continue walking forward vigilant of my surroundings. A few meters ahead I hear the sounds of low and throaty voices. I move closer until I hear something new, along with the low voices now there is also the sounds of sobbing. I look ahead and I see a huge, brown hairy creature. I climb a tree and jump forward so I could get a better look. In a relatively open area of the forest there are 4 massive creatures holding clubs in their hands; trolls. They formed a square perimeter around what appears to be dryads; a forest sprite species that was born out of old enough tree. The dryads are huddled together crying, in front of them sitting on top of a fallen down tree must be the leader of the trolls. Instead of a club he is holding a mace with spikes at the end of it. I wanted to use scan on the boss or at the very least one of the trolls to gauge their fighting capacity but if I do that they will engage me and battle. The tree he is sitting on appears to be tied with a rope and squirming. He smashed his mace at the ground near the tree and it stopped squirming. Those must be treants which would make sense since dryads and treants have a symbiotic relationship.

The treants let animals like birds and squirrels live on them. The animals fertilize the land and help to diversify the types of trees around them. The dryads water the trees and treants. Dryads also help the plants, which would help feed the animals, in the area free of harmful weeds and insects. The trolls must be keeping the dryads as food whiles the treants as kindling. Of course I have no proof of that. I just remembered reading in the Enchyclopedia that trolls can eat anything but greatly preferred meat.

I slowly climb down, backtrack and when I got enough distance from the trolls I take off in a sprint. Perhaps the dryads can help me grow the mushrooms if I can promise that they will be protected. They would be a great asset to have considering that most potions required plant and/or fungi.

When I got back my army along with Kline's team is there already. They are all equipped for battle but maybe for the enemy their equipments are not enough. I return my equipments in the inventory and speak.

"There are 5 trolls over there about 2 hundred meters or so and have dryads and treants for hostages. Our goal is to save the hostages." The army nodded in acknowledgement. "I assume you know they have thick hides and have high regenerative ability." They nodded once more. "These trolls though are unlike the ones in the wild, these trolls have well defined muscles unlike the thin and scrawny looking trolls you may have encountered. These trolls also looked they have had training as warriors so expect them to be levels above to the trolls you have encountered before." I motioned Zellia to come closer. I take out a few chain mails and potions and handed it to her. I pointed first to the chain mail "These are Fortune of Strength armor. They have enchantments in them that will make you a bit tougher and a bit stronger. They are also enchanted against blunt attacks. Those who will fight in the front lines will wear these. Also-"I pointed to a green potion. "-these potions have corrosive effect. The archers will dip their bows with these so that the trolls' regenerative ability will weaken." I pointed to the yellow potion. "These potions have fire effect. Those who use swords will coat their weapons with these; once your weapon has contact with the trolls' flesh their wounds will be ignited. I assume the magic casters know you have to use [Fireball] or [Acid Javelin] to damage the trolls." I looked at Zellia "Divide the army into groups, half of them will stay here to guard the entrance. Make sure those who have coated weapons are divided evenly amongst the groups that will fight in the front lines. The sentries will form a 100 meter perimeter around the trolls to warn us of their reinforcements. I and Buster will engage the leader, and 4 groups will be engaging the 4 other trolls. It's best to lead them away from the hostages but if we can't then we have to kill them fast." Zellia nodded.

While the army is preparing I take out my Encyclopedia and read about trolls.

-Trolls-

Trolls are ill-tempered and hostile creatures. The most common type of trolls are bridge trolls; trolls which guard bridges and will only let you pass if you have an offering to give, cave trolls; trolls who lives in caves which can be identified by the growing moss on their heads and/or shoulders, and lastly are the war trolls; which are battle tested and commonly the biggest of trolls. Trolls are omnivores but prefer to eat animal and human meats. Trolls will sometimes steal children and women. The women will be raped until pregnant and in celebration trolls will eat the kidnapped children. When a half-troll is born the mother will be given to the half-troll baby as a gift to be eaten.

Trolls lives in communities and will therefore require a leader. Candidate troll leaders will be chosen among the strongest of trolls. They will then be put in a battle royal until only one troll is able to fight or left standing. Trolls are given a short new name to show that he is a troll with considerable power.

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I wonder what they are doing here. I have to find out before we engage them. I returned the Encyclopedia and turned around to look at Zellia

"Ready to go?" I ask her. Before we head out I give Zellia a couple of communication necklace. "Zellia wear one and give each leader one of these. They can be used to communicate with me. You just press the pendant and speak and I will be able to hear you. Leave one to the guards staying behind."

"Yes sir." I address the army. "Remember the objective and the plan. Make sure to take away the dryads and the treants as fast as possible." I looked at Buster "You're with me B."

I run towards the trees with buster at my side and the army following behind me. A quarter of the way there I slowed down. I use [message] and contact the sentries.

"Sentries go ahead and scout the area. Make sure there are no enemies waiting in ambush. Once you see the trolls form a perimeter around them but stay hidden in the forest. Be alert and contact me at once if you have been detected or if you see reinforcements of the enemies. Do not engage them." I see demons flying up but stayed in the cover of the trees. I used the necklace to contact the respective leaders "Teams get into your position; we will slowly advance to the target point so that the element of surprise is still on our side." I hear the various acknowledgements of the order. "Zellia get the rescue team ready. Wait for my signal to start the mission."

We slowly move towards the trolls alert to our surroundings. No one ambushed or attack us. Finally I see the trolls ahead of me.

"Buster let's go."

While slowly coming towards the trolls I made sure to walk casually. I wanted to appear as an elf taking his wolf for a walk. Sure enough the trolls noticed me and they face towards me. As I reached the end of the tree line and see the trolls I made sure to act surprised.

"Hello there." I greeted amiably. "I'm Jake, this is Buster. I don't encounter trolls here normally. Who are you people?" the trolls eyed Buster and my gear. The one to answer was the troll at the back

"I am Agu. We captured this dryads for consumption." I noticed the 2 trolls ahead of him slowly creep towards me. 'That's good. That creates space so the rescue team can get to them quickly.'

"That's quite a lot of dryads, are there perhaps more of you?"

"There are none. We retreated from the west and we are looking for a place to settle." I wonder what made them leave their homes. Anyways that is a question for another time. I whisper "begin mission."

I equipped myself with the same chain mail that I gave the others. In my belt are throwing knives coated with the green potion. I also brought Dagger of Ruin an item with corrosive and weakening enchantments. Strapped behind my back is Dragon blade, a short sword that has fire enchantments.

I threw 2 throwing knives at the 2 trolls nearest me, the knives embedding into their chest. I threw a third at Agu. I rushed him and Buster followed me. I expected Agu would deflect the throwing knife with his mace momentarily giving him a blind spot. The two trolls in front howled in pain and in the corner of my vision I saw the army coming out of the woods. The moment Agu finished his swing I was already near the dryad hostages. I jumped at him drawing Dagger of Ruin and I stab him in the belly. He doubled over and I pull out the dagger. Buster goes to my left side and rams his head into Agu. Agu fumbles over to the right. Buster and I charge him again but Agu saw our charge and swings the mace horizontally. This stops our charge but I throw a knife at him. It embeds to his neck and Agu takes a step back clutching at his neck. Buster and I resumed the charge and we try to pincer attack Agu. Judging I was the bigger threat Agu turns his back on Buster and faces me instead. I withdraw Dragon blade and continue charging him. Agu raises his mace above him and [Martial Art: Shockwave Blow] he brings down his mace to the ground. When the mace hit the ground it created a little quake that shattered the ground beneath his mace sending chunks of earth this way and that. I stop my charge and jump back to avoid being hit by the chunks of earth.

"Gahh" Agu bellowed suddenly. He around swinging his mace but Buster is already on the way back. A few chunks of flesh is missing on Agu's back. I took this opportunity to attack. I stab the Dagger of Ruin into his regenerating back and I jump off of Agu using his back. Agu reaches to his back trying to get the dagger out but he can't reach it. Frustrated he roared once again

"You are going to pay for this! A disgusting elf like you can't beat me, even if-gggahhh" his face twisted in pain. He lowers his stance suddenly and shoots off to charge me. He swings his mace left and right aiming for my head but I dodge him every time. Each time Agu swings his mace I dodge and I slash him. The wounds are shallow and are healed shortly after but as the fight goes on Agu's regenerative powers are slowly weakening. Once again Buster attacks him and he roars in pain again. He wildly swings his mace behind him hoping to hit Buster but Buster is already on the way back. Panting heavily Agu asks me

"How are you so strong? How can your mutt injure me?" I don't answer him though, instead I unsheathe the Dragon blade and I slash vertically from his belly up to his chest. His wound does not heal immediately anymore. He drops down to his knees and drops his mace. His eyelids start to twitch. After a few seconds he falls down on the ground face first. I pull out the dagger on his back. My teams are battling the rest of the trolls and they seem to be doing quite well against the trolls. The dryads and treants are no longer nearby and have been taken to safety. I contact Zellia

"Zellia where are you? Where are the hostages?"

"We are approximately 10 meters west of your position sir."

"Alright, I'm going over there to check up on them. I defeated the troll leader but stay vigilant."

When I arrived at the location the dryads and treants are still tied up. I sighed inside. I walk up to them and cut all the rope binding them. I smiled at the dryads to show I'm not an enemy and I mean no harm.

"Hello. I'm Jake Valnan and this is my army. I'm sorry they left you tied up but I guess they are still new at this."

"Y-you c-command these demons?" asks one of the dryads. I smile and answer

"Yes, I defeated Zellia over there and ever since then they became my army."

"Are you one of the elves that reside to the north? Or maybe you are from the south?"

"No I don't belong to either. I'm a traveler. Are you all alright? Are you missing any friends?" one of the dryads stood up and comes over to me.

"Yes, a few of us are gone now but we will make it." She reached out her hand to me. I smile and shake it "I am Thebe. Thank you for saving us from those vile creatures. How did you know that we are in trouble?"

"You're welcome Thebe. As to how I knew, I saw the Glyrf birds flying away from this area. I had a suspicion that there are some strong monsters here. I checked because I live in the Ninorum Kingdom and if there are evil creatures roaming around here, the dwarves might get in trouble. I figured we should preempt the attack if they can cause harm towards my friends. When I saw you and your friends tied up.. well that's how it is."

"You are very kind." Thebe looks away and looks into the forest. She looks at me again "Sir Jake, can I ask you for a favor? Can we come with you? My sisters are terrified now, this has never happened before. The trolls they-" she stops talking, as if the words she wants to say are choking her.

"It's alright Thebe, I can guess what happened. I can put you under my protection. I will assign 2 or 3 demon guards to protect you. Are you going to be comfortable with that?" Thebe looks at the demons.

"Yes, I think we have to. There's a change coming. We can feel it." Thebe looks at me again, she looks straight at my eyes. I can tell they are scared, maybe fir the first time in their lives. The forest was always good to them, even predatory animals don't attack them but since they have been attacked by trolls...

"Ok, we can go once my team kills the rest of the trolls.

After a few minutes the other teams contacts me and reports that the fight is over. We escort the dryads and the treants back to Ninorum Kingdom. They can live near the secluded waterfall. I guess I won't be skinny dipping anymore.

I asked Thebe about the mushrooms that I want to plant and she said they can help me. I also asked Thebe about slime dwellings explaining to her that I needed their gel as a part of a potion I'm making, in my surprise they too emit gel like substance when they get dirty. They usually just scrape it off and bury it back to the earth because it somehow acts as a fertilizer but if it is the same stuff that I need then I can have it. I immediately tried making a potion using the ingredients and the resulting potion amazed me. I made a Minor Healing Potion that heals 100 HP. I smile and thrust my arms into the sky. We can finally start training seriously, I hope I can improve too. I may not level up but I hope that my stats will get higher or at least with the repeated practice I can get a good proficiency with the sword.

I do wonder though how many YGGDRASIL rules I have to follow here. Can people in this world level up their jobs? Can they use the same procedure to go beyond their current job class?

Chapter 7  
"Ready? Begin."

Two warriors facing each other. The warrior on my left side is wearing red leather armor. A symbol can be seen at the front of the armor painted white; a standing trident crossed with swords at the middle, below it are the letters JVW. She is also wearing a long sleeve chain mail underneath, a red leather armband and a red leather leg protector. Perry's weapon of choice this time is the gladius. On her right hand is a white gladius that has holy properties. On her left is a gladius enchanted with lesser speed and strength enhancements.

The warrior on my right is a demon. With his two straight horns protruding on his forehead, he is hard to mistake for anything else other than a demon. He is wearing almost the same armor as his enemy except his armors are colored black. The other difference is that the demon is wearing a bracelet with a broken chain in his right wrist. His weapon of choice is a scimitar, which like his oppenent, he also dual wielded. On his right hand is a scimitar enhanced with speed and strength spells. On his left is a scimitar with enhancements in its sharpness and destructive properties. Of course neither of the combatants knew of their opponents weapon.

Perry on my left, Neqbuhm on my right. This is next level training duel. In this duel you are allowed to fatally wound your opponent. After 2 weeks of using this method of training the soldiers are already showing progress. A few soldiers who went to this kind of training already learned a new martial art or two. Of course all of this effort would be useless if the soldiers died in training, that's why they are given one potion each. This potion can help them save their lives even from life-threatening wounds. Once you drink the potion you forfeit the duel and your enemy wins. In case someone dies at the duel I will use Resurrection Wand. Naturally when resurrected the person will have to go through a rigorous training regimen so that they can regain their life force although so far none have died in a duel. I supervise all of the training of this level.

Perry is very light on her feet as expected of someone who is in the thief class. With her (Sticky Fingers) ability, she is a natural thief. Her talent not only helps with her steal skill, but it also helps her inflict her status effect. The mechanics of status effects, as far as I can tell, is largely the same from YGGDRASIL to this world. Although already a fortunate Talent Holder, Perry is among a league of her own with an additional talent known as (Condition Robber), a talent which allows her to steal a portion of her enemy's attribute for a short time. It seems Perry is the strongest of Kline's team. Although all of them are Talent Holders, they only hold 1 talent.

Perry crouches in a fighting stance and Neqbuhm answers her with his own. In an instant both of them charged towards each other, sparks fly out when gladius meets scimitar. You would think that Neqbuhm would overwhelm Perier but thanks to his Training Bracelets his attributes has been lowered in exchange for a boost in experience gain. To put it differently, they are almost at the same level of strength. This exchange of blows continues for a couple of seconds until both of them decides to regroup and rethink their approach. They both jump back away from each other. Perry sheathes her white gladius behind her back and crouches in a fighting stance once more. Neqbuhm charges her again once more however even before Neqbuhm closes in Perry she extends her right hand and..

[Steal Agility]

...Neqbuhm slows a little bit but continues the charge and swings his right scimitar at her vertically. Perry dodges at the last second and slashes Neqbuhm at his right hand making him howl and release his scimitar. Perry kicks him at his shin and he buckles over. On his knees Neqbuhm swings his left scimitar at Perry. With her skill expiring, Neqbuhm's agility comes back at the cost of Perry's agility lowering. Perry attempts to block with both her gladius and Neqbuhms scimitar but she was too slow and she only manages to block with her gladius causing her to partially spin to her left. Outbalanced as he is, Neqbuhm tries another swing at Perry but she dodges by rolling away. Both panting, Perry and Neqbhum stands, albeit somewhat slowly, on their feet. With his right hand healing, Neqbuhm stretches his right hand. He switches his scimitar from left to right and charges again with renewed ferocity. Unfamiliar with the scimitar, Perry awkwardly defends until she is forced to drop the scimitar and unsheathes her gladius. Feeling the familiar weapon in both her hands she attacks Neqbuhm before he can retrieve his weapon. Clashing once again Neqbuhm dodges while attacking. Perry manages to sneak a few slashes here and there but Neqbuhm also succeeds in wounding her. Suddenly Neqbuhm changes his stance and..

[Martial art: Dire Assault]

...Neqbuhm's scimitar glows with white light and swings at Perry. Perry tries to defend but instead her defense is blown wide open and she staggers back. Before she can recover Neqbuhm rushes her and...

[Ogre Blade]

...Perry managed to sway at the last moment but as the Neqbuhm's scimitar hits the ground it causes a mini explosion blowing Perry away. Neqbuhm falls down on his knees.

"And the winner is Neqbuhm."

I jog to where Perry is and I see that she is still breathing but with numerous wounds and bruises.

"I see you're still alive. Can you drink your potion?"

"Yes,lemme get it out."

as she fishes for her potion I see Neqbuhm walking towards our way. He waits for Perry to drink the potion and extends a hand to help her up. She takes it and grins at him. They shake their hands and bow to each other. The murmurs of the watching crowd turns into loud cheers and friendly jeers. The former for Neqbuhm and the latter for Perry.

A few demons and dwarves congregated near the two combatants. They offer their praise and observations on the duel.

"Zellia wanna try?" I ask the commander. She looks at me and nods. The crowd that formed around Perry and Neqbuhm helps the two and gives us a wide room for a duel.

"All by yourself or do you want a partner?"

"Feosam, are you up for it?" Zellia looks over at a nearby demon. Feosam, in her human form, is a skinny, frail looking old lady. In her demon form she is a fiery skeletal demon. Feosam nodded and immediately turned into her demon form and Zellia followed suit. I waited for Feosam to finish casting her buffs on Zellia and for Zellia to finish her martial art buffs

[Lesser Strength] [Lesser Agility] [Lesser Fortification]

[Ability Boost] [Greater Ability Boost] [Greater Evasion] [Greater Sensory Perception]

"Done?" I ask the two. Zellia nodded and points her sword at me. She closes her eyes and breathes slowly. The crowd seems to hold their breath. Being the strongest in the my army, Zellia is the only one to ask for a duel or accept my duel invitation. Even while wearing Training Bracelets and Training Necklace I can still beat her with a single strike. Sometimes I let her tire herself out, sometimes I end it with a single blow. She can hardly believe herself when she dueled me and I defeated her in a single strike. Although I had to reactivate a lot of passive skills to do that, most of the time I disable all my passive skills to learn and hopefully be a little stronger. Now I think its time to remind them who's the strongest around here.

Zellia charges at me. She's as fast as the first time I dueled her; which is how I found out that she used her martial arts before our duel. When I found out the next time she asked for a duel I defeated her with a single strike. Now I just evade all her attacks and on occasion let Feosam friendly fire her. At the end of the duel I stabbed Zellia at where I judged to be her collar bone. I punched Feosam on her belly and she keels over.

"Hoooohhh. You guys made me sweat. Good job as always commander." Zellia shakily gets up on her feet and smiles with dissatisfaction on her face.

"Don't worry commander. Keep training and someday you might make me fight seriously, alright?" I look at Feosam

"Feosam don't be hasty, most of your attacks hit Zellia. I realize that most if not all of your enemies so far aren't as fast as I am but in the event that you encounter someone as fast as me. I don't do this to brag-" 'Well maybe a little bit' "-but to give you a rough idea on how to act and fight someone faster and/or stronger than you." I look at the crowd; the demons look at me with awe, the dwarves with reverence (well I can contribute most of that to my actually saving them.), and the humans with respect.

"Alright everyone, continue training. I'll be in my room making potions. [Message] me if anything comes up."

After the training session, I called out to Buster and we immediately got out of the mountain and onto the secluded waterfall where the dryads and treants are. Unlike myself, the dryads and treants are deep into their daily routine; tending to the forest. In my knowledge, there is supposed to be another creature living with harmony alongside the dryads and treants but ever since I found them tied up by the trolls I haven't seen the 3rd member of their relationship. I decided to visit them everyday at an irregular manner, in other words, visiting them whenever I want to. But still the 3rd member is still elusive. The Encyclopedia can't be wrong, well it hasn't been wrong so far. An epiphany came to me last night so I decided to test something out. I [Message] the sentries to avoid coming in this part of the mountain until I say so. As the sentries move to the other side of the mountain I sit nearby and wash Buster in the waterfall. I exchanged a few greetings with the dryads and treants in the course of bathing Buster. After the bath, I let Buster hunt for himself in the forest. Buster runs off to the forest grinning stupidly. I smile, sit down on a nearby rock and close my eyes. A few minutes pass and finally...

"Hey, hey you, are you awake?" a high pitched voice ask me. I also hear a buzzing noise in front of me. I open my eyes and a small flying creature is flying inches in front of my face. I lean back to try and see the creature.

"Yes, yes I am. My name is Jake, what's your name?" the creature appears to be a small flying, glowing human. Its long blond hair seems to be in a constant state of movement. Small wings on its back flaps almost imperceptibly, the wings are only a blur as it flaps. Big blue eyes that is disproportionate to the rest of its body. It's dressed in a beautiful white dress.

"Hmm, let's see. You can call me Twig." the creature flies upward and twirls itself in the air for a couple of seconds and then coming down to and stopping at my eye level.

"Nice to meet you Twig. Are you alone? I haven't seen any fairies around here." Twig looks at me sideways and proceeds to fly around my head.

"Well I am the only fairy here but my friends are hiding over there?" she points towards the dryads.

"Oh I see, but why though? Were you there when the trolls attacked?" I let concern creep into my voice

"Yes we were. They were ssscaaarryy. We hid into the treants cause we were so scared. Now we hide because of the demons flying around us." she tapped me in the head "isn't that obvious? I think they are much scarier than the trolls."

"Well what about me? Why did you show yourself to me? I assume I'm not scary?"

"Yeah I saw you fight that big troll guy and then we were swooped away then I can't see you anymore so I hid again." the skittish fairy is hard to have a conversation to. I decided I won't follow her movements anymore otherwise I might get a headache.

"You saw that huh? Didn't you see who swooped you away? It was the demons, they work for me now so you don't have to be scared anymore." Twig stops in the mid air flies towards me and looks at me in the right eye. I close my left eye to focus on her; she studies me and cocks her head to the left and then to the right. She does this in a few seconds while I have to blink my right eye constantly.

"Really? Okay then. By the way, where is your dog? Can we ride him?" the sudden agreement and then the change of topic caught me off guard. I stared at her for a few seconds before finally answering

"He just went to the forest to hunt for something, he'll be back. I don't know, I'll have to ask him."

"Ooookaayyy. I'll wait over there and tell the others. Byeeeeee" before she even finished speaking she flew towards the dryads.

Before long Buster comes running to me.

"Did you have a good hunt B?" he answers by licking me in the face. I answer his affection with a few scratches behind the ear and a few rubs on his belly. Noticing that Buster is back, Twig comes flying back to me this time with her friends; tiny flying humanoid creatures that looks like they are wearing green shirts and green pants or green dresses. Each of them has a leaf, flower, tree branch somewhere attached to them.

"Helloowww Jek. These are my friends, the tree sprites." Twig presented them to me as if saying Tadah! I smile and say

"Hello Twig. I think Buster is ready to play with you now, what do you say Buster?" Buster licks my face and runs to the tiny creatures. They rode him, played hide and seek and whatever the fairy and sprites wanted to do. At one point Twig wanted to enter Buster's mouth. "Don't swallow B, they're friends." and Buster didn't swallow. After a few seconds of being inside, Buster pushed Twig out with his tongue. The tree sprites teased the fairy and a game of tag ensued. I noticed Thebe looking at me watching the tiny creatures play with Buster for a few moments until she walks to me.

"Thank you Mr. Valnan-" 'Finally done with sir.' "-the little ones have been sad ever since we moved here. I think they were scared still to come out. Now they can finally play again."

"I'm glad to hear that Thebe. In truth I didn't do any of this simply because of the goodness in my heart, I had hoped that they too would help me in my quest."

"I understand but what could they do? They are not warriors."

"That much is obvious Thebe but I'll find a way." with that Thebe nods and watches the tiny creatures play with my wolf.

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"So it's finally here huh?" Perry asks Kline

"Yes, the messenger just arrived and gave me my father's letter. It said that the beastmen are going to arrive a week from now. It is fortunate we were able to train for a bit, I wish we had more time but I guess it's just wishful thinking now. Our training, although short, was fruitful wasn't?" Kline asks his team

"It sure is. Did you see my duel with Neqbuhm? With a few more training I know I can beat him." Perry declares excitedly

"Sir Valnan sure is knowledgeable. I can't believe that even as a ranger he has a few tips on how I can be a better mage." Heath smiles

"I was doubtful of him at first, but I changed my mind about him long ago. The dryads that he saved even gave me a talisman to help with my spells, I can't wait to go back here."

"You sure are confident Rosy." Perry teases her

"Not confident, more like hopeful." Rose replies. She didn't even reproach Perier for calling her Rosy

"After all of this, I'm going to return here and I will train full time." the rest of his team looks at Niles. It's not like they don't understand him, if given a choice they probably would do the same.

"I think I would too." says Kline

"Yeah right, as if the King would let you. He was vehemently against training here the first time, what would he do if you said you want to train here for a long time?"

"I don't know Perry, I'll convince him somehow." the young prince looks at an empty space for a moment "When do you want to say goodbye to Sir Valnan?" asks Kline

"Let's do that later after lunch, maybe he's busy right now." Niles answers

"Alright, let's go have lunch."

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Before going back to the mountain to have lunch, I left Buster to play with Twig and the sprites but also to guard them. It seems that they are still very wary of the sentries even though I explained to them that the demons are working for me now. As a middle-man between the sentries and the tiny creatures, I left Buster. 'I guess that would make him middle-hound?'

As I go into the the mountain entrance, a sentry informs me that a rather large party of elves are heading towards the mountain. They are possibly an assessing party sent here by the nearby elf kingdom I was told about, but isn't too late for them to send one now? It's been quite some time since the dwarves had been conquered by the demons, what are the leaders thinking over there? I use [Message] to contact Zellia and bring a councilor here to meet them and a few soldiers just in case something goes wrong. I also give an order to the sentries to stay out of their range. I go back out of the entrance to wait for them. After a couple of minutes Zellia, Master Stormgrog, Master Matdrarlig and a couple of soldiers join me in waiting for the elves.

"Master Valnan I heard elves are coming here, I wonder what for?" ask Master Stormgrog

"Maybe they are checking up on you. Maybe they are from the elven kingdom you used to be in trade with. Although-"

"Yes you're right; it was quite awhile ago since we have lost contact. For them to send one now..." answers Master Matdrarlig

"Anyways, let's just be ready to welcome and to do battle if it comes to that." the two dwarves look at each other and nods. They go behind me but in front of the demons. I turn to face forward to where the elves are coming from. After waiting for a while I sense them coming, after a few moments I hear them advancing carefully towards us. Finally 10 or so meters we spot each other, an elf looks at me and at the two dwarves behind me. Once he sees the demons though he pulls an arrow from his back and pulls at his bow, before he can shoot though I interrupt him

"Stop there. These demons are under me, I conquered them so they won't attack you unless you attack first. Come out of the forest and state your business." the elf leader is surprised by the revelation. He gestures for his men to move forward. After arriving at the end of the forest and into the open are before the mountain, they immediately announce who they are

"Greetings honored elf. I am General Ailen Aelynn, we hail from the Ellarian Kingdom. We are envoys sent here by her majesty Queen Celaena Olalynn to see if the Ninorum Kingdom need any help." before I can answer, Master Stormgrog steps forward and angrily waves his hands

"What the hell are you elves thinking?! We have lost contact for months and only now you are bothered to check up on us? Aren't we allies?!" Master Stormgrog frantically foams at the mouth due to his anger but before General Aelynn can respond I try to calm Master Stormgrog down.

"Don't be like that Master Stormgrog. I'm sure they are not that incompetent. I'm sure they have their own problems and they can only afford sending someone to help now." I look at the general with contempt in my eyes. He doesn't miss it and I smile at them but they don't respond to Master Stormgrog's and my taunting. I address the general once more

"I came to their aid and conquered the demon army who subjugated them. Now I live here temporarily. You can tell that to your majesty." the general's face contorts in hatred for a moment. He must be a loyal soldier who loves his lord. Not only did I insult his kingdom, I failed to show an "appropriate respect" to his majesty-or maybe just them? I don't know. Although I haven't met any royalty worth any extra respect. Even Kline, who is an admirable prince, I don't show extra respect towards him and I don't see the need to. One of his soldiers though, doesn't have the level of control the general has. His face red with anger steps towards me

"How dare you talk like that?! What tribe and kingdom do you belong to? We are official envoys sent here and you will show us the respect we deserve." I smile at his antics which makes him even madder.

"Respect? Deserve? You weaklings? Why would I? I don't give a shit who you are or what ass kingdom you came from. You don't get to demand respect when you yourselves don't show respect to anyone." as I finish talking I let the bubbling hatred I feel leak into my voice. The elven soldier flinches at my words but before he can respond the general stop him.

"That's enough soldier, get back. You are right honored elf. We just wanted to check up on our allies albeit, like you said, it is far too late. We will go home and report what we have found here. Perhaps we can show our regret in our kingdom and repay you honored elf for saving our allies." unlike the idiot soldier, the general seems to sense something amiss about me and he invites me to his home turf where he has the advantage. I smile at him.

"You can and I would accept if invited"

"Then I formally extend an invitation to you honored elf, to show our gratitude for saving our ally the Ninorum Kingdom, we will throw a banquet in your honor." I raise my eyebrow at that. I didn't expect for him to invite me all of a sudden, well not for real. I assumed he would have to go back to his kingdom and get permission or at least suggest it first. He must be way high up there in their kingdom for him to be able to invite without checking up first.

"I accept. When can we expect this banquet?" I caught the general off guard. He didn't expect me to accept so easily

"We will have the banquet in 3 days from now. Of course I extend the invitations to the dwarven council."

"I accept too." Master Matdrarlig answers

"Then we will welcome you to our kingdom in 3 days time." he turns towards the forest but turns back again "ahh! Pardon my forgetfulness; if it's not too much of a request please don't take your demon army with you. The other elves of my kingdom aren't used to such creatures and I fear they might scare them."

"I understand, I will only bring my general and a few men who can change their appearance into their humanoid forms." the general nods and recedes back into the forest.

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"Can we really trust them Master Valnan?" ask Master Oakbranch

"You're the one who is familiar with them, what do you think?"

"Of course not! Those blasted elves didn't help us when we needed, I bet you 2 mugs they were sent here to try and start a good relationship with the demons who conquered us." Master Marblerock slams his fist into the council table "and you-"he points at me "I heard what you said there to those elven shitvoys, I approve." he grins at me and I grin back at him

"Vorbaeg please calm yourself. Although I also approve of your actions." Master Hornmaul beams at me

"Councilors please." Master Barbedfury addresses me "What do you think we should do, Master Valnan."

"I think we should go. I can lend you armors that has high piercing, slashing and blunt resistances. I will also give you rings to protect you from a number of negative statuses. I can also lend you talismans that can teleport you out of trouble but even with that you have to consider that it won't be enough protection. It is your lives who will be put on the line but I still think that you should go to show them that you are strong without them."

"I agree, I would go." answers Master Oakbranch. I can see determination in his eyes

"I would too." answers Master Matdrarlig

"So do I." Master Marblerock slams his fist again on the table

"Two is enough I think, so you will have to stay Vorbaeg. I'm sorry but maybe next time?" Master Snowarm's voice is full of sweetness as if to show her remorse for not letting the Director of Food Production go. Master Marblerock stares daggers at her but doesn't respond.

"We need to test if you guys can use my equipment, meet me at the coliseum in 30 minutes. I'll also teach you how to use it." with that I leave the councilors, I'll need some thinking of my own. Why did I snap at those elves like that? Sure I find them deplorable but I shouldn't have acted that way and one more thing. I've recently noticed that I can sense the feelings of others. It was weird, as if I just noticed the way I breathe and once I notice it I can't stop noticing it. An unexpected effect of being a True Elf Lord maybe? Or an unexpected effect of an equipment? Looking back though, I change my equipment all the time to skew my advantage over my side. Anyways, it'll be a problem for another time.

While walking to my room, I see Kline and his team approaching me. By the looks of it, they have been looking for me for some time.

"Sir Valnan, we finally found you."

"What's up Kline? Do you need something?"

"Not exactly, you see we have been summoned by my father. The war with the beastmen is finally here, by the estimates of our sentries, they will arrive near our borders in about a week. We're here to say our farewells."

"Hhmm, I see." I look at Kline and his team. Have they grown stronger? It such a waste if they end up dying in that war. I'll help them a little bit then. "Come with me, I'll give you something." hesitating, they look at each other

"No sir, it isn't-"

"Just follow me already. Listen you guys, I like you. I don't want to know you died in some battlefield. I want you to come back here alright?" we arrive at my room and I look back at them. "Stay here while I get the items I want you to have, no discussions alright? This is not a gift; I will lend you these items. I expect you to bring it back here, all of you, understand?" smiling, all of them nodded "Wait outside here for a moment."

Inside the room I take out 3 leather armors, 1 plate armor, and 1 chain mail armor. I also take out 2 daggers, 1 short sword, 1 wand, 1 mace, and a bow. I could have given them these out there, but I have a feeling it's not good to consistently pull out from my inventory in public.

"You can come inside now."

When all of them got inside my room and they saw the items on my bed, it stopped them in their tracks.

"Sir, this. This is too much. We can't take all these high grade equipment." Kline protests. These are only level 40 or so items. These are trash to me but they don't have to know that. I'll pretend they are high grade and guilt them into coming back.

"Well if it will get you into coming back, these are nothing. I know you might die out there and I would feel bad if I didn't do anything to keep you alive." that hit the spot. Although reluctantly, expect for Perry that is, they accept my gifts.

I reach out for the green leather armor and I hand it to Rose

"This will enhance your druidic abilities. It also has defense and magic enhancements." I also hand her the mace with a brown gem on top of it "This will reduce the mana cost of your spells and has a [Quake] spell inside. You can use [Quake] twice a day"

I reach out for the red leather armor and hand it to Heath

"This will strengthen your [Fireball] spell. It will also reduce the mana cost of [Fireball], has defense and magic enhancements." I hand him the wand with a red gem embedded at the tip "This wand has a [Scorched Earth] spell in it, it's best to use it alongside the [Quake] spell. You can use it twice a day."

I reach out for the silver leather armor and hand it to Perry

"This has strength and speed enhancements. Combined with this-" I hand her a silver dagger "-it will improve your slashing ability and the [Flash] spell inside, and this-" I hand her a violet dagger "-it enhances the venom enchantment inside it. Ah-" I turn to her once more "-to use the venom spell you have to stab the weapon into your enemy. You can use [Flash] thrice a day."

I hand the white plate armor to Kline

"This will protect you from most mental attacks, it also has strength and vitality enhancements." I hand him a peculiar short sword. "This is a dragon blade, it gets stronger the stronger you get."

I hand the silver chain mail to Niles

"This will protect you from slashing, piercing and blunt attacks. Of course it also has strength and speed enhancements." I hand him a gnarled wooden bow "This will extend the reach of your arrows, although not much."

After handing them all the equipment, I sit down on my chair and close my eyes.

"Oh, by the way, are you familiar with the Ellarian Kingdom? They will hold a banquet for me and a few of the councilors." when no one answered, I open my eyes only to see Kline and his teammates shocked. If this is a cartoon, their eyes would be popping out of their sockets right now.

"What? Why are you all so quiet?"

"S-sir! We cannot possibly accept these items. Th-"

"Oh just shut up and accept them will you? I don't need them anymore so you can have them. And will anyone please answer my question." the first to snap out of their condition is Perry

"I don't like 'em. They act all high and mighty all the time and when that one time an envoy visited us they felt like they were looking down on everyone."

"Th-that is true, I remember what you're talking about Perier. That was almost a year ago. Although I heard that we were once on friendly terms with them but ever since the new Elf Queen took over they severed all ties with us." adds Heath

"Is that so? Hmmm... by the way when are you leaving?"

"We are about to leave. We just stopped by to say goodbye."

"Is that so? Sorry for keeping you then. You can go now, I have to meet a few councilors in a few minutes." they all look at each other, bows and leaves.

I spent the remaining days training Masters Matdrarlig and Oakbranch. Although they are far from mastering it, at least they can teleport out of the mountain. They would be in trouble though if the Ellarian Kingdom is protected from teleportation. Just in case, I also lend them a few armors.

After 3 days, the escort to the Ellarian Kingdom finally arrived. Accompanying me and Masters Matdrarlig and Oakbranch are Zellia, Neqbuhm and Feosam. The escort surprised me by using the [Mass Teleport] spell, although he looks like he used an item. After arriving to an unknown location we rode on unicorns. They glided through the forest, ignoring the branches and trees on the way. It was a very surreal experience

After arriving at the Ellarian Kingdom, I was impressed. The whole kingdom is protected by an illusion, from afar the Ellarian Kingdom's location looks like any other part of the forest. I anticipate that alongside illusion magic they also use some sort of confusion magic so that anyone passing through their kingdom is redirected or will find another path. Thankfully though the escort is with us and after whispering a password the illusion is revealed. After the illusion, their next defense is the high stone walls, patrolled by soldiers at the top. The steel gate looks study and imposing. When a soldier saw the escort, he gestured to someone and they let us enter immediately. They incorporated trees in the building in the Ellarian Kingdom, or at least in what looks like the residential part of the kingdom. The escort guided us through the kingdom, pointing various buildings here and there; the archery academy, the magic academy, those kind of places.

The tour ended in the palace which sits in the middle of the Ellarian Kingdom. We are welcomed by the general from before. He stood at the entrance waiting for us. He takes over the escorting duties and guides us through the palace. Apparently the banquet will happen in the royal dining room and will be attended by the queen herself, some advisers and other important people. I let the general ramble on, I studied the interior of the palace. I've never been to a real life palace before, but the Ellarian Kingdom's palace is what a palace I imagined would look like. White marbled floors, high ceiling, glass chandeliers, red carpets, the works. Finally we stop in front of an ornate wooden door. General Aelynn opens the door for us and inside waiting are the royalty of the kingdom. Sitting at the head of the table is probably the queen, to her left is an empty chair which I assume the general will be sitting on. On her left side are 6 elven royalty, but I get something odd from them.

"We welcome you friends from the Ninorum Kingdom. I am Queen Celaena Olalynn, and these are my advisers. Please, come in and sit so that we can start the banquet." dressed in white gown with golden trim, she is the image of royalty. Around her pale neck is a golden necklace, each of her fingers has a ring with a precious gem embedded on it, such a lavish appearance. The long table is filled with food that looks appetizing. In truth, Masters Matdrarlig and Oakbranch can't help but gulp when they saw the expensive looking wine bottles in the table. When we sat, she starts introducing the people around her but I wasn't listening. There's an odd feeling in here, as if we are being watched. I look around and I can't sense anybody who is invisible. I ask Neqbuhm if he can detect someone invisible using [Message], he doesn't detect anyone and I order him to keep vigilant. I reach out under the table an anti-scrying item. I activated it and suddenly there is a noise of breaking glass. All of a sudden, a crack appears in the middle of the air on top of the table. Everyone in the room freezes, I smile and say

"It's not nice to spy on someone you know." all attention focuses on me. In a panic someone who looks like a elven wizard points a finger at me and, in a shaky and loud voice, asks

"H-how the hell did you do that?" I show him the wand that I used

"with this. That wasn't very nice you know. I assume that was the other elven kingdoms, you want to ask them where kingdom I'm from and what tribe I belong to. To save you the trouble, I don't belong to any kingdom or tribe. I came from midgard in YGGDRASIL."

"That has to be a lie. I've never heard of midgard or YGGDRASIL." the general shouted at me

"Me neither, I've also never heard of a magic item that can break a high level scrying spell." adds the elven wizard

"Oh? Are you saying that you know every inch of this world? Are you saying that your maps include outside of this tiny little continent you live in? Are you also saying that you have complete knowledge of every magic item in the world? You think highly of yourself don't you." general Aelynn and the wizard fumes at my response. "One more thing, while the queen, the general and the wizard are really here, the rest of you are not who they say you are. I suspect that they are your soldiers hiding behind illusion magic." this shocks them again. The dwarven councilors is aghast by the behavior of the elves. "Is this how you treat your guest? Pretty disappointing. I expected better things from this kingdom. Let's go." I stand up and wait for the others to stand up too but before they can stand up, the general quickly gets up and orders

"They are too suspicious, apprehend them now!" with that the illusion of the soldiers breaks. The one in front of me is fast, by the time I threw 4 throwing daggers at the others he is already close to me, so I grab him by the throat and slam him down on the table. In an instant 4 soldiers are down and I got one by the throat. The soldier keeps squirming and was about to reach for his weapon when I harden my grip on his throat and say

"Stop that. I will squeeze the life out of you if you don't stay still." hearing my warning, the soldier stops. General Aelynn is on his feet, sword on his hand and the other protecting the queen. The wizard is on his feet too, pointing a wand towards me.

"You attacked first remember?" I address the queen "Nice move there queen. You let the wizard and the general act on their own keeping quiet. Now you can just say that they acted without your control but you see, I am with two dwarven councilors. They witnessed everything, if you ever want to be on our good graces again you will have a choice. Admit your fault and ask for forgiveness, or send to the Ninorum Kingdom these offending 5 soldiers. Of course they will be tried as assassins of the councilors and will probably be sentenced to death. Your choice. We are going home now 'kay? If any soldier attacks us, they will be dealt the same as these soldiers." with that I release the soldier and let him go. No one stopped us in our exit. The guards on the gate let us leave the kingdom without any trouble.

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"Is it wise to do that Master Valnan?" asks Master Hornmaul

"You heard what they did. What would be your punishment for trying to assassinate one of you?"

"They will have to be tortured to get out the information on who ordered the assassination, and then they will be sentenced to death." reponds Master Oakbranch

"Why did you give them choices? You could have killed the blasted soldiers on the spot" asks Master Marblerock

"Before answering you question, let me ask my own. What would you do in a similar situation? If you can save 6 of your best soldiers with just an apology"

"What kind of question is that? It is obvious! Even if only 1 soldier can be saved, I'd gladly apologize to anyone." I smile at Master Marblerock. The other councilors have the same answer.

"You are right of course. So what would you think of someone who sacrifices 6 of their own just to avoid apologizing?"

"They must be an idiot of course. Not only an idiot, but also very selfish and narcissistic."

"I agree, that's why I set those choices. I'm sorry for stepping on your authority by the way."

"It's alright. I lost my temper and would have done something rash. You responded better than I would have." says Master Oakbranch. I bow my thanks to him and he bows back

"I was so out of my league. I was so shocked and scared. You saved us. Thank you." I smile at Master Matdrarlig

With my revelation of YGGDRASIL, I hope I can find out if I am the only one here. It would be nice if someone else was transported here. Of course there exists a possibility that someone was also transported here and doesn't want anyone finding out. They might not be friendly but I'll deal with it when the time comes. Three days after the whole elven kingdom fiasco, 12 elf soldiers came. Half of them are gagged and bound. When they reach the entrance of the mountain, they asked for me. With tears on their eyes,, the offending soldiers knelt to the ground while the others stood behind them, unsheathes their swords and promptly executes the soldiers in front of them. Before leaving I call out to one of the soldiers

"Tell your queen that she could have prevented this. She just had to apologize. What a sad queen you have, to value her own pride above your lives." the soldier glares at me but doesn't say anything.

I stood there for a moment and then I ask the scouts to help me carry the dead elves inside the mountain. The Queen probably thought it was best to execute them themselves so that we can't torture them for information. They obviously didn't expect the dead soldiers to be resurrected. How naive. They might think that they have maneuvered around us and outsmarted us. They are probably feeling pretty smug about it right now. In all likelihood, the soldiers felt betrayed before their deaths, maybe even angry. Well, time to fish for information out of the soldiers.


	2. Chapter 8

I still remember the days I spent in that tiny little village. You see, I came from a small frontier village north of Clovea Castle. Most of the people there were farmers or hunters. My dad was a hunter.

Life in a frontier village is hard. Monster attacks quite normal and happens regularly. We have no services to speak of and people with specialized skill and talent are hard to come by. In our village we don't have a shrine and priest to heal us from diseases, we don't have a forgery or a blacksmith to repair our tools hell we don't even have an inn where travelers could rest for the day. The upside is we learned to do the skills we need for ourselves. Although crude, a neighbor can do a rough repair of your farming tools if it got broken. Of course you have to travel to a city where your equipment can be properly repaired or, when only it becomes a necessity, buy a new one. Another upside is that we learned long time ago that we have to rely on each other so that we can survive. 

We were not natives of village, at least, my parents were not. My parents decided to move there one day. My mom was a woman of knowledge and skill; she knew how to knit, she knows a little divine magic so she can passably heal someone, she was a great cook, she knew how to bake and she can handle a bow so she can take care of herself. My father also was a capable man; he can repair tools here and there, he had a working knowledge of herbs and he is a great hunter. Apparently my dad taught my mom how to use a bow. With the knowledge that they are in danger every single day, our neighbors asked my dad to teach them ways of defending themselves so that at least they won't be helpless in a face of danger. So he taught them what he knew; ways to escape, how to survey your surroundings, how to assess danger and ways to use your surroundings to your benefit. Soon enough, my parents became an integral part of the village. 

2 years after their arrival at the village I was born, sadly though, my mother died giving birth to me. Some of the locals feared that my father would resent me and blame me for the death of my mother, but he never did. Of course he still mourned my mother, he loved her very much. In a way the loss of my mother was a bigger loss to the entire village, they lost the only person who can use divine magic. Thanks to my mother fatal or crippling injuries like broken bones and punctured organs can be healed, though not completely. The point is that their lives would be saved or at the very least they can work again with a few nights rest.

So I learned about by mother only through stories. Our neighbors loves to reminisce and tell me of stories about my mother. Stories of how she saved them, stories of how delicious her meals were, stories of how beautiful she was. This tidbit of information I got when we had a village feast and some of the neighbors got more than little drunk. The harvest was particularly good that season so the village chief decided that the village deserve a little break from the roughness of life. Tables were set in the village square in the middle of the village; extravagant meals were cooked, wine barrels were bought and the whole village was partying and in a festive mood. Folks were singing, a few were dancing and one person actually wrote a poem and read it out loud. So there I was, sitting in a table when I heard some of the drunken men and even some of the women start to talk about my mother. The women were jealous of her silky hair and her fair complexion. The men were fantasizing about how soft her skin looked, how lovely she was and how lucky my father was. Of course this was said in jest as otherwise there would be hell to pay from their wives.

My favorite stories were the ones from my father. About their lives before they came to the village. He said that they used to be platinum ranked adventurers, although the two of them were in a different team. He said that back then their team were rivals since they were just silver ranked adventurers. They would try to best each other in every way; they would compare who has better armors, better weapons, better magic items, faster mission accomplishment, defeated mightier foes and who can drink the most. They would share and compete in a bar they frequented. Although they were rivals, they were friendly rivals. They did all of that as an added motivation to better themselves. And in the course of all of that, they fell in love with each other. I don't know what made both of them quit being an adventurer. The one time I asked him about it he got quite all of a sudden and looked away. After a minute or so he clumsily changed the subject and I never asked him about it ever again. Or I guess I never got the chance.

One day when I was 8, my father discovered an encampment of bandits some ways away from the village. He talked to the chief and said he recognized one of the bandits, a particularly heinous fellow that is a wanted criminal in the kingdom. So they sent a messenger to the kingdom to report the bandits and also to ask for help just in case the bandits attacked our village. Sadly though, the bandits attacked before the kingdom sent their help. My father along with the men in the village tried to defend the village as best as they could. Although they held the advantage of numbers, they were regular people and did not have the training my father had. They were able to fend off the bandits only momentarily. My father tried as best as he could but he was older then, even with the help of his best armor and weapons he was defeated in battle. An army of the kingdom eventually came but it was far too late. There were a lot of casualties in the village, my father was one of them. To the surprise of the village, the king himself led the army. Apparently the leader of the bandits was a royal guard turned traitor. After securing the village, the king personally surveyed the damage caused by the bandits. He saw me crying over my dead father, and to the surprise of everyone, knelt beside me and cried. They were friends when they were younger, that's why he responded as fast as he could to my father's letter. 

After we buried the dead, the king talked to me. He asked for my mother but when I said that she died giving birth to me he was saddened once more. He asked if I wanted to stay here, or if I want he said I can come with him. Even then, as young as I was, I was shocked to be invited by the king. He was feeling guilty because he didn't make it in time but I knew he wasn't to blame. I knew that my father would not have blame him either, he was not that kind of man. I agreed to come with the king. I would not want to burden anyone else in the village by staying here so I decided to come with him instead. He said that he has a son that I can be friends with, he also said that I can be whatever I want to be and he would help me with it.

That was 10 years ago. Now I am in a team with Kline, prince of Clovea kingdom. Everyone of us is a (Talent Holder). I hold 2 talents, namely (Sticky Fingers) and (Condition Robber). Kline also holds 2 talents, one is (Master Warrior) and (Silent Warrior). (Master Warrior) let's him learn Martial arts faster, not only that but it also decreases the stamina cost of using Martial arts. (Silent Warrior) however allows him to use Martial arts without casting them, it also lets him use Martial arts on the move. Niles holds (Eagle Eye), a talent which lets him see farther and clearer which perfectly suites him considering he is a ranger. Heath holds (Natural Magic) which improves the effects of any of his elemental spells. Rose holds (Earth's Blessings) which helps her with her druid magic. I don't exactly understand it, and when Rose tries to explain it to me she goes on and on about the cycle of life and the price we pay or whatever. 

We were formed as the elite among the elite warriors in the Clovea kingdom composed of the most talented warriors. Although we are young, well besides Heath, we were trusted with important missions. Although Kline is our official leader, Heath is the one who provides insight and counsels to us. Our latest mission was to find out what happened to our friends at the Ninorum Kingdom. I like those hairy dwarves; the best forgers in the land. Every time they finish our request, they would go to a tavern and drink themselves silly. One time an adventurer challenged a dwarf to a drinking game and the poor idiot was shown how outclassed he was when it comes to drinking. Soon enough, he sat at the table face down passed out. The dwarves just laughed out the poor guy. Anyways, sometime ago they stopped coming in the kingdom and even missed an appointed repairs. This was the first time it had happened since we forged a friendly relationship with them so the king ordered us to investigate what is the cause of this and to help them in any way we can. After preparing for the journey we left the kingdom and went to the forest that separates our kingdoms and hides theirs. 

While going through the forest we stumbled upon several oddities. According to our intelligence gathered by our spies this area of the forest is guarded by war wolves; wolves several times larger than normal and more dangerous but they where nowhere to be found. After scouting the area and the surrounding areas we found another oddity. There was an elf roasting fishes by the lake with the largest wolf I have ever seen. Even lying down the wolf was imposing. I'm sure the wolf must have heard us but he didn't get up to growl at us, instead the wolf kept sleeping. All of a sudden the elf spoke up inviting us and offering us to share the fish he has been cooking. Rose didn't want anything to do with the elf which was understandable considering our last encounter with elves but Niles and Kline wanted to speak to the elf. After deciding that it would be wise to not engage in any hostile behavior, we stepped out of the forest. The elf offered us delicious roasted fish and introduced himself as Jake Valnan. Not long after we introduced ourselves we were attacked by 3 orcs. To our amazement the elf took care of the orcs easily. Sensing the elf to be a potential great help to our mission Kline asked him to help us and he agreed. 

Thanks to Jake's help we discovered that the mountain and the dwarves was taken over by demons, infiltrated the mountain, asked for a duel with the general of the demon army, won the duel with the general of the demon army and consequently became the new commander in short order.

After witnessing the elf's powers, we decided that we are going to be under his tutelage, if he accepts of course. But first we need to get permission from the king. So we went home and asked for permission. It took quite a while for Kline to convince his father to let us train in the Ninorum Kingdom but the king finally relented and off to training we went. The first 2 weeks was spent training with the dwarves and with the demons. And then we switched to a more serious training regimen, we engaged in mortal duel with each other. In other words, this duel can actually kill us. Some of us actually knocked on death's door a few times. But thanks to the strange red potion master Jake gave us and his resurrection wand, we were allowed to unleash our abilities in the duel. With the help of a strange accessory, we yielded positive results faster at the cost of being weaker while wearing the accessory. In under a month, our team became stronger. We were trying to be strong so fast because of the upcoming war with the beastmen. Finally one day a letter from the Clovea castle arrived informing us that the time to go home is here. Before we left though, we wanted to say goodbye to our teacher and mentor for the last month. To our shock master Jake gave each of us armors and weapons, not only that but armors and weapons better than any of us has ever seen. The others received their gifts with trembling hands but I received mine with excitement. We shortly left the mountain after that to return home, to get ready for our upcoming battle.

It took us 3 days to go home. I suspect that we were all eager to test our new weapons. We would have done it already but we didn't encounter any monsters on the way. So we rode hard and we rode fast, not only to get home but to also see for ourselves the new power granted to us. I was first to to arrive at the training grounds. I unsheathe an ordinary looking silver dagger. One would be hard pressed to find the dagger special in a first glance; it looks so ordinary,so mediocre, so unassuming. When you first touch it though, you can feel the power hidden inside. I close my eyes and exhale, I am so excited I'm afraid I will mess something up. So I breathe and try to relax. In a few moments I feel my body finally relax, of course my body is still tired from the hard ride but I ignore it and grip the dagger. I can feel the power it held inside, I open my eyes to look at the target dummy I placed a few feet in front of me. I touch the power with my mind and release the skill hidden inside...  
[Flash]  
…in a moment yellow light engulfs me, power surges through my body and a run towards the dummy and my world blurs for a second. I was so shocked by the sudden change that I passed the dummy and tackled the wall behind it. I lay in the ground hurting. It took me a few minutes to recover enough to stand. I look at where I was before and once again amazement fills me. It took me seconds to travel a hundred or so feet. I look at the dagger, which somehow is still, in my hand. I run to where I was and I try again only this time I was ready for the blur. When I reach the dummy I strike it at the abdomen, the blur comes back and I am where I was before. I take a couple steps back and I try it again, the same thing happened; blur, strike, blur. The only difference is after the attack I wasn't where I was when I started the attack. In other words, there is a limit to the distance the [Flash] skill can travel. 

I lie down in the ground and close my eyes. Master Jake said that the armor he gave me will enhance the [Flash] skill but since I used up all 3 charges I have to wait until tomorrow to use it again. I let my mind wander to the possibilities granted to me by the weapon. I hear people talking, they sound familiar, must be the members of my team arguing over who gets to try their weapons first. Hah! I beat all of them and I got to try my weapon first. The ground feels cool and it feels good. Soon enough sleep takes over.

. . . . .

“Who the hell was that damned elf?”  
“Does anybody know where he came from? He claims he is from a place called Midgard, does anybody know where that is? Or this Yggdrasil he talks about?

Nobody answered the question. Among the elves seated around the table, no one knows about the mysterious elf that suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He didn't come from any of the elven kingdoms which they ruled. Nobody knows who he is. That fact alone is troubling enough and as if to spite them he is strong enough to defeat 6 elite warriors of the Ellarian Kingdom in seconds.

“I've never heard of this man. I've never heard of a magic item that can dispel a high level scrying spell either so it is entirely possible that he is not lying and he did came from Midgard. Not only was he able to sense and break the scrying spell, he was also able to see through your illusion spell, a dangerous man indeed.”

“And another thing...” someone handed her a dagger “...he had these weapons. These have strong enchantments I've never seen before. With one hit these daggers paralyzed my warriors even though they were wearing accessories that guard them against negative conditions.”

“It must have a powerful enchantment then. Speaking of, was it wise to send your warriors to their deaths like that?”

“It is fine; we killed them so that they can't be used as information leaks. Unless of course your kingdom's sacred magic item that can cast resurrection was stolen.”

“No, of course not. We have it safely stored in a heavily guarded location.”

“Hopefully we can repair our relationship with the Ninorum kingdom. We need their weapons now more than ever. Depending on the outcome, we may have to help the Clovea kingdom. I'm sure nobody has changed their opinions on to deal with the Behzuhr Kingdom.”

“Every time one of us has met with the king of those accursed beastmen, he looks as if he wants to eat us.”

“Yes. What a despicable fellow. And now an unknown elf with terrifying powers and incredible magic items has appeared. How are we going to deal with him?”

Once again nobody is able to answer immediately, everyone in the room looked at a particular elf who sat quietly and hasn't said a word since the meeting started. This elf is arguably the best fighter in all of the elven kingdoms. He has survived countless wars and battles and everyone in the room acknowledges him and listens to his advice. He let the silence stretch linger for a moment and when he finally speaks, all of the attention is focused on him.

“From the reports that I saw, he is indeed a powerful warrior, and a perceptive one at that. To be able to sense the srcying spell and to be able to distinguish an illusion from the real thing is a marvelous accomplishment. Perhaps he can alleviate my boredom that has plagued me all of these years. I can't wait to meet him. I wonder if I can spar with him.” the old elf chuckled “but my needs can be put at the side for now. I think...”

. . . . .

“This is troubling Master Valnan.” the Forgemaster, with a worried look on her face, says

“Damn those blasted elves, not only they did not help us in our time of need but now they intend to help those barbaric beastmen too. Cursed earth and stone.” the Director of Food Production slams both of his hands on the table. After interrogating the now revived elf, I learned quite a few things about the Ellarian Kingdom. I also learned that they struck a deal with the beastmen and will help them in assassinating the king of Clovea kingdom.

“I intend to go the Clovea kingdom and stop the assassination of the king. Although an elf waltzing through the kingdom killing people is a terrible idea, but if I...”

“You are right of course. I will accompany you then, a friendly face will avoid misunderstandings. I can also introduce you to the king,”

“Thank you Master Oakbranch. Of course you have to be ready to fight.”

“He's right Thranmut, I know you got a little bit stronger training with Master Jake but don't be overconfident. It will get you killed.”

“On that topic, I can help you get stronger still although I'm sure there are risk involved. It's not a sure thing, I don't know if it will work. I don't even know the risk, but the rewards are great.”

“Can you truly do such a thing?”

“Yes, I---” 'I wonder how to explain this. Well I don't have to tell them the whole truth.' “---discovered this process in my travels. I know quite a few people who did this process. I myself went through a similar process and, well, here I am.”

the dwarven councilors looks at each other. 

“Yes. Yes I will go through it. I used to be quite satisfied with my strength. But recent events really made me think that there are always stronger beings out there. I can't just be satisfied with my current power anymore. I---” he stammers, as if he is admitting something shameful “---I...”

“It's alright master Oakbranch. It is natural for one to desire progress; it is also natural for a warrior to desire strength.” 'I don't know how to get the knight job. I think that will be a good job for him.'  
“Meet me at the coliseum in an hour and bring a small ingot of mithril. Also bring your most used weapon or your best weapon.”

In YGGDRASIL, you can acquire jobs by doing quests provided by designated NPCs but that was in YGGDRASIL. Since the items required exist here in this world, perhaps it is possible to change jobs. Of course that's just hopeful thinking, it might not do anything. I guess I'll play the position of NPC this time. 

Master Oakbranch arrived at the coliseum early. Merely 43 minutes has passed since I left the councilors room and he is already here. I guess he is excited to get stronger.

“I trust you have with you the materials I asked?”

“Yes, they're right here.” he points to his sword at his hip and he raises a small bag

“Alright, he should start then. Stand here please. Bring out the ingots , hold your weapon and the ingots at the same time.” I gesture in front of me. After he is ready, I give him an amulet.

“What's this then?”

“It is part of the ceremony.” in my peripheral vision, I saw a few members of the dwarven councilors watching us. 'I guess they are curious. Do I have to do a ceremony here? I was just going to ask him if he accepts and see what happens. Damn, I'll just have to improvise.'

“Oh great warrior that seeks power and strength.  
(Oh geez)  
You who have experienced loss and defeat.  
(Meh.This will have to do)  
You who have gained renown and admiration.  
You who battled with strong opponents and won.  
You who battled with infernal creatures and lost.  
You desire greater power, and you have come before me.  
I will grant you power.  
Power to face greater challenges.  
Power to face greater foes.  
You, who goes by the name of---” without the need to urge for an answer, he replies

“Thranmut Oakbranch”

“---Thranmut Oakbranch, is hereby granted power.  
I give you blessings of knighthood.  
(The ones on YGGDRASIL was better. It rhymed.)  
Use this gift to protect.  
Use it to conquer.  
Use it to defend.  
Use it to attack.  
(That's it. I'm tapped.)  
Do you accept this gift?”

“Yes.” upon answering, light envelops him and temporarily hides his figure. From where I am standing, it looks like there is a dwarf shaped light. After the light clears and the dwarf councilor can be seen again, Thranmut Oakbranch looks at his hands

“This is---”

. . . . .

I have never experienced a battle of this magnitude before. Sure I have been in battles where we were outnumbered. But this is just too much. There are enemies left and right, even if I defeated one enemy there is always another ready to replace them. Arrows flying everywhere, spells hurling this way and that, screams intermingled with cries of battle. The sounds of weapons clashing against weapons, the sounds of dying cries of the enemies and allies, the smell of piss and shit and death. There is so much blood spilling everywhere one can practically taste it. All of these coalescing into one unpleasant battle experience. 

[Lesser strength] [Lesser fortitude]

With his buffs reapplied, Kline continues to fight the enemy. Hacking and slashing, every time he swings his weapon an enemy's body part flies across the battlefield. Unlike Kline's powerful strikes, I attack the enemy with precision. I slice throats, wrists, ankles or eyes to incapacitate them. While the enemy is disabled and howling in pain on the ground, Kline finishes them by beheading or stabbing them in the heart. 

Right now, Kline is fighting a big bull beastman. I think they are called Minotaurs. Pounding his fists at Kline's shield, the minotaur relentlessly attacks Kline and keeps him on the defense. The minotaur is strong enough that every time he hits Kline, he gets pushed back a little. The minotaur attacks with a big swing but Kline manages to deflect the attack. While slightly off balanced by Kline's parry, I choose this moment to attack...

[Flash]

...in an instant I am between the minotaur and Kline. I swipe at the minotaur's belly; deep enough to hurt him and make him to bend but not deep enough to spill his guts. 

[Martial art: Fierce strike]

Kline takes this chance to attack and busts open the minotaur's skull. Brain, skull and flesh spills over and the minotaur falls down. I already used [Flash] 2 times, Kline has used his martial arts multiple times now. I look back at our other members of our team. Niles ran out of arrows some time ago and is now using a short sword to defend himself. Heath has bombarded the enemies with [Fireball] and is probably also nearing his limit. Rose's condition is probably the same, what with constantly healing and rebuffing us. Heath and Rose also used their respective stored spell once already so they only have one left.

“Incoming enemy. Watch out.”

As if to announce their arrival, 3 beastmen made their way towards us while killing anyone in their path. Even their allies are not spared from their brutality; if you are in their path, they won't hesitate to kill you. A lean beastman with yellow and black fur that has sharp feline features, he uses his claws to swipe at anyone within reach. Another one is a big and muscular beastman that has grey skin and a horn on his forehead, anyone unlucky enough to stand on his path gets to be skewered by his horn. The last beastman has grey fur and wolfish features, his weapon of choice are his teeth. They are covered in the gore of battle (or is it more accurate to say that they are bathing in their brutality). Unlike other beastmen that has only 1 or 2 animal parts, these beastmen truly embodies the name “beastman”. You can tell that they are more attuned to their animal instincts. No, these are not beastmen. I think they are creatures known as werebeasts. But from what I know werebeasts are mages that learned how to transform into an animal form of their choosing. Kline, thinking the same thing, ask them

“What are you people? You don't look like regular beastmen.”

“HA!? We? Beastmen? These vermin? Don't even lump us together with them. We are stronger, faster, smarter than them. They are beneath us. We rule over them, as we should.” the feline “beastman” almost purrs the last part. As if it excites him. He even shivers at the end. Although I call him “him”, I can't really tell. He has an androgynous voice and appearance.

“Stop it. We are not here to play, we are here to kill. Let's get on with it.” with this as a signal, all 3 of them suddenly exudes a terrifying bloodlust. Fortunately, we have experienced much more before so we didn't flinch. Leading the attack, Kline charges the 3 beastmen with me at right behind him. Without preamble, Heath activates his final stored spell...

[Quake]

...the ground beneath the trio starts to shake violently. As if waiting for this to happen, the grey beastman slams both of his fists to the ground and breaks it apart and causing chunks of earth to fly here and there. Looks like they know how to deal with us, but it doesn't deter us. Kline continues to charge forward and uses his shield to bash and hinder one enemy. The grey beastman receives Kline's bash head on. I focus on the feline beastman. I attack him with quick strikes but nothing connects. He evades all of my attacks but I don't stop. Slash, stab, slash, slash, slash, stab, stab, stab, slash. He parries the last attack and swipes at me with his big claws as a counter attack. His attack is fast and sharp, not big enough to give me a chance to counter his counter attack. Fortunately he goes for my body. His claws just slides over the leather armor. Although I wasn't wounded by that attack, the strength behind it still makes me stagger back. Although I said slide, his claws still left a mark on my leather armor. He just wasn't able to slash open my armor. He didn't let it affect him too much though. He attacks me again only this time he is not aiming for my torso, now his aiming for my limbs. After just a few clashes with him, my arms and legs are full of wounds and gashes. He is faster than me, but I've trained with people a lot faster than him. Thanks to those experiences I managed to evade his massive slashes. Behind me, I hear my team mates falling in defeat. It looks like only Kline and me are left standing. Slowly I start to retreat. My back hit another back. Based on the ragged breathing it is Kline. The trio surrounds us.

“Are you alright?”

“I have wounds on my arms and legs, you?”

“Bruises all over.”  
Kline stops for a second, and then he adds  
“They aren't killing us. Niles, Rose and Heath are over there unconscious but alive.”  
he addresses the trio  
“What do you want? You could have killed my friends, but you didn't. Why?”

“Lookie here, smart one eh? We have our orders, that's all you need to kn---”

Unable to finish, the wolfish beastman stares at the sky behind me.

“What the hell is that?!” the feline beastman, asks with a shrilling voice. I look behind me and a fire dragon is in the sky flying towards us. It is not a dragon breathing fire, no. It is a dragon made up of fire, as if the fire became alive and formed a dragon-like appearance. The fire dragon rushes towards our location. Kline and I are too tired to flee so we both slump in the ground panting. The trio beastmen, as if sensing something, starts to run in different directions. The fire dragon passes overhead and I can feel the heat that it emanates. The fire dragon, upon nearing the screaming, fleeing feline beastman, opens its maw and swallows him. The fire dragon then turns around and chases the wolf beastman. Once again it opens its mouth and eats the beastman. Finally the fire dragon slams its mouth into the running grey beastman and evaporates. Apparently the fire dragon is not alive but instead it is a spell of some sort. What it left behind its wake are a burned earth, and 3 burned beastmen.

Upon witnessing the awesome power of the spell, the battlefield becomes quiet. Some noticed the fire dragon not because it roared but because of its heat that it emitted. Everyone in the battlefield is shocked into stillness. Suddenly, the wall of soldiers parts to let a familiar and elf through.

“Looks like I made it. Kline, Perry you both got beat up huh? Was the enemy that strong?”

. . . . .

Upon arriving at Clovea city that houses the Clovea castle, I wanted to immediately go inside and warn the king but the soldiers guarding the gates stopped us. With the help of Master Matdrarlig and Thranmut(he insists I call him that from now on), we were able to enter the city. Familiar with the 2 dwarves, the soldiers trusted them more than they trusted me. I guess that elven envoy that visited them some time ago left a bad impression on them. After convincing that I am not an enemy, the 2 councilors starts to explain why we are here. After listening to the explanation, they immediately let us through and sure enough, there in the middle of the street are 4 beastmen and an elf with illusion magic over them making them look like regular human soldiers. I raise a wand and I point it towards the elf. Informed with the knowledge that I am here to help, they didn't stop me. Although they still raised their weapons. The elf and the beastmen gets surprised after the illusion fades and they return to their true form. The human soldiers charges the enemies and with the help of Buster and Thranmut they quickly kill the assassins.

“They might not be the only ones. Lead me to the castle, they may be assassins already there.”

Understanding the situation, the soldiers nods at me. Although I can tell that they are still wary and suspicious of me. 'Smart of them' We killed 2 more assassination squad on the way over the castle. Inside though I didn't see one.

“Looks like they haven't reach inside the castle but we have to make sure. They may be in the throne room already.”

“We understand. Stay here while I inform the king.”

“Oh tell him I was the one who trained Kline and the others.”  
Surprised, the soldier nods and enters the throne room. We waited only for a few moments when the soldier from before opens the door and invites us inside. I didn't waste any time to explain the information that I gathered from the revived elf back at the Ninorum kingdom. The king, with his 2 guards, listened attentively at my explanation. They faces turned sour after hearing the plan of the Ellarian Kingdom.

“Damn those elves. I thought we were allies.” one of the king's guard spat

“No, they never treated us as allies. You are a mighty warrior Varry but you're still young and naive.” the king looks at me “So, I was informed that you trained my son and his team. I offer you my gratitude. Kline told me many things about you and I would like to invite you to a dinner but as you know we are in the middle of a war with the beastmen.”

“I understand. I will join the battle. I will leave the wand with Masters Copperhead and Oakbranch. I will also leave Buster, he should be able to help you identify the enemy. I'd hate for my students to die here, I had grown to like them.” with a nod, I leave the king in the throne room.

Immediately after leaving the city, I scan the battlefield to find Kline and his team mates. I hope they are together and not separated. They are not in my immediate vicinity so I take out <> and scan again this time farther ahead. I spot Perry and Kline roughly 1 km ahead. It looks like they are fighting against 3 beastmen and they are losing. I look for the others and I find them on the ground. They may be unconscious. I need to help them immediately. I take out <>, a blue and silver bow that adds about 500m to my range and enhances 2 of my skills. I pull the bowstring even though there is no arrow. A red arrow materializes...

[Fire Salamander]

...and I release it. The arrow turns into a dragon in the air. It flies through the air and seeks out its target. The soldiers nearest to me turns to me and their mouths drop at the sight of my skill. As the dragon flies through the air, it catches the attention of the soldiers on the ground. They stare at it with amazement and dread. Spell-bound by the flying dragon, it looks like everyone held their breath. The only sound that can be heard in the battlefield is that of metals from armors clinking against each other. Finally catching its prey, the skill flies down and swallows the first victim. It flies up again to find the second target. Upon seeing it, it flies to it and swallows it again. The third and final enemy gets slammed in the ground by the skill. The whole battlefield is quiet upon witnessing the rampaging fire dragon. I run towards Kline and Perry. Sensing that the fire dragon came from me, the soldiers of the battlefield gave me a wide birth. Humans and beastmen alike gave way to me as a jog through the field. Finally, the wall of bodies end and I arrive at where Kline and Perry is. I smile to the both of them

“Looks like I made it. Kline, Perry you both got beat up huh? Was the enemy that strong?”  
they just sat there on the ground panting.  
“Yeah they were. But thanks to you master we are still alive.”  
“I guess you ran out of potions. Here.” I toss them both 1 and they quickly drank it healing their wounds and bruises.  
“Looks like there are more enemies still.”  
Kline and Perry looks ahead at the enemies camp. I raise my bow and aim...

[Black out the sun]

…I release an arrow and it multiplies in the air. Soon enough there are thousands and thousands of arrows in the air, blocking a portion of the sky, aimed at the enemy base camp. The beastmen panics and starts to scream warning their allies to “get the hell out of here”. The arrow starts to fall by the hundreds while thousands of arrows are still in the air. Death and despair rain down on the enemies' camp. Upon witnessing this carnage and hearing the cries and howls of their fellow beastmen, the beastmen that are in this side of the battlefield throws down their weapons and surrenders.

I showered the enemy's camp with arrows for 10 minutes straight. The cries of pain ended about 4 minutes ago but I need to be sure. Satisfied, I stop and end the skill. The arrows in the air start to disappear until the sky is clear again.

. . . . .

“What?! Is this accurate?!”  
…  
“What about the assassins? Did they succeed?”  
…  
“Just inform me immediately after they contact you.”

“So, What did your scouts say?”  
“He----They----It's unbelievable.”  
General Aelynn repeats what his kingdom's scout said. After he relays what he learned everyone in the room became quiet.  
“That can't be what really happened.”  
“That is impossible. There's got to be some sort of miscommunication, he couldn't have done that.”  
“I agree. And that fire dragon that he summoned? I thought he was an archer, but he summoned a monster? And a dragon to boot? That is unbelievable.”  
Everyone in the room voiced their unwillingness to believe the report. Everyone except the oldest elf. He just shook his head in disappointment.  
“This is what you get for rushing things. Your actions lately have been too crude. It makes me question your ability to lead your kingdom.” he looks straight to the queen of Ellarian kingdom. The queen shrinks under the oldest and most powerful elf's gaze  
“I, ruler of the Ruith kingdom, denounce the queen of Ellarian kingdom. From here on out we won't answer your call for aide or your summons. From now on we break ties queen Celaena Olalynn .”  
The old elf stands. He looks around the the room surveying the faces of his fellow efl-kin. His statement shocks them and leaves them speechless. Queen Celaena Olalynn is shaking in shame and anger. About to leave, general Aelynn calls out to the old elf  
“You will regret not standing beside us when the assassins completes their job.”  
“If you think they still can then you are a fool.”  
This simple reply shuts up the general. Unable to come up with anything more to say he sits down.  
“You wouldn't have said anything if the plan succeeded.”  
a small voice came from the queen Olalynn.  
“Perhaps. But your willingness to sacrifice your subjects to death to save face and now the failure of your poor executed and idiotic plan honestly gives me pause. It may be because you are a young queen but I can't accept your recent actions. I only came here because of my respect to your late father but that is not enough anymore. I can't risk the lives of my people because of your incompetence.”  
A wave of killing intent emanates from general Aelynn. The old elf smiles at him.  
“Come one. Try it. You may be the strongest in your kingdom and I understand the urge to try your strength against me but know this. I won't hold back.”  
The old elf emits his own killing intent but mixed with it is his battle hunger. His willingness to lay waste his opponents gives him a crazed look. It stops the general and everyone in the room gulps in anticipation. A few heartbeats passes and nothing happens. The old man returns in place of the battle hungry warrior and leaves.

. . . . .

It took a long time to deal with the after effects of the recently won battle. Thankfully, the battle ended outside of the city. No civilians were hurt.  
Right after the battle, master Jake became the topic of discussion around the soldiers. By night time, almost everyone have heard of the elf that single handedly ended the battle. Some soldiers who witnessed master Jake's fire dragon skill will animatedly tell you what they saw. The younger soldiers portray him as the new champion of this generation. Their eyes have that gleam from someone who found their personal hero. Some people who remember the last time elves came into the city still has negative impression on elves but even them admits that without master Jake, the battle would have ended a lot worse. Not even considering that he was the one who discovered and stopped the plan to assassinate the king. 

As an acknowledgment for his deeds, king Aldus invited master Jake to dinner. Of course I was invited as well but I'm not suited for that kind of thing. I'm sure he'll invite some nobles and I don't want to see that person now. I'd rather go to a bar and listen to the stories. Of course I have to do it discreetly, I don't want to be noticed and disrupt the flow of the bar. When I arrived at the bar, a few soldiers are already there drinking. Of course accompanying drinking is story telling. Although not much of a drinker myself, I still frequent this bar.  
“You guys are so stupid. He could be a spy you know.”  
a young adventurer with a platinum plate hanging around his neck suddenly interjected his comment between a group of soldiers  
“There's no way. I heard he was the one who trained the prince and his team. Why would he do that if he is a spy?”  
“You're so stupid. Maybe he did that to get close to the prince and eventually get close to the king.”  
“No, you are the one who's wrong. He helped us. I heard that he even saved the king from assassins.”  
“Oh? How did he do that?”  
intrigued, or I guess faking interest, the adventurer asks the older soldier  
“Some elves and beastmen were able to infiltrate the city. They used illusion magic to make themselves look like human soldiers.”  
hearing this, the eyebrows of the adventurer shot up  
“Maybe it is a elaborate scheme.”  
“Oh yeah? An elaborate scheme so important they sent their best illusionists? And I guess to make it more believable they also sent their best weapons and armors? Not to mention the assassins aren't your run-of-the-mill soldiers like us. They were clearly trained. Are you telling me that they intentionally sent those high-grade illusionist, those top quality weapons and armors and those first-class assassins to their deaths?”  
receiving this information, the adventurer shuts up. Indeed, that is a very high-price to pay. If they can infiltrate us so well why would they need to sacrifice?  
“They already infiltrated us. There was no need to go to that convoluted plan. They just walk right up to the king with their illusions on and kill him and then escape. With that, they successfully killed the king and they get to keep their top-class warriors.”  
unable to answer, the adventurer angrily retorts  
“You don't know that. What would a weak soldier like you know? They may have a grand scheme at play.”  
the old soldier just looks at the adventurer. His eyes full of pity  
“Oh to be stupid and young again. Believe what you believe. My instincts tell me that we can trust him.”  
red faced, the adventurer gets up  
“Trust him? An elf? That has to be a traitorous statement. Arrest him, we will present him as a traitor at the king.” 

Before his companions even got up, I am already beside him. I press a dagger across his neck. Everybody gets quiet. No one dares to speak or move. I take off the hood to show everyone my face. A few people gasps recognizing who I am.

“You see, I quite like that elf you're talking about.”  
I press the dagger harder making him bleed a little bit  
“I will not have you smear his name with your idiocy.”  
a hand presses down on my shoulder. The old soldier the adventurer was talking to came forward and stops me  
“That is enough Lady Perier. I understand that you respect him, but killing this man will just hurt his reputation.”  
I close my eyes for a moment. “He is right. Although he is just a platinum adventurer, he is still up there; only below Mithril, Orichalcum and Adamantite. Platinum adventurers have a small influence and killing him may validate his idiotic claims. Since they already know that it was master Jake who trained us, the backlash of our actions may damage him in someway.' I remove the dagger from his neck and re-sheathe it. I leave the bar without looking back.

. . . . .

“How about officially forming an alliance then?”  
After the dinner, Masters Matdrarlig and Thranmut told the nobles and king Aldus what happened at their kingdom a month ago. The discussion drifted to the relationship between the Ninorum kingdom and the Ellarian kingdom. It looks like before, both the Ninorum kingdom and the Clovea kingdom have a somewhat amiable relationship with the Ellarian kingdom. It suddenly changed when queen Celaena Olalynn took the throne. Now, with the Ellarian kingdom's failure to answer the call for help of Ninorum kingdom and the recent assassination attempt at the king of Clovea kingdom, they are discussing a plan of action.  
“The Ninorum kingdom will supply weapons and armors. The Clovea kingdom will supply man-power. This way, you can help each other. Of course this is just a suggestion, I have no idea of the intricacies of your kingdoms. At least if you form an alliance, it will somewhat deter the Ellarian kingdom.”  
“You are right. We do have superior man-power compared to the surrounding kingdoms. That was the only reason why the beastmen didn't have an immediately won the battle even though they have superior strength and speed.”  
“I also agree with Master Valnan.”  
After that they started to discuss the alliance. I drifted off for awhile so I didn't pay attention to what they were discussing. I excused myself soon after Kline did. I caught him in the hallway and I asked to talk to him.

“I'm going to travel soon. So Kline, do you want to come with me?”

 

 

Author's Note:  
Hello everyone. I am currently reading Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei and I am in Volume 9 right now. I am also suffering from (bad)writer's block, so that's why it took me a long time to write this. It looks like I'm running out of ideas, but I don't have any plans for this story so maybe that's why. What about you guys? Do you have any ideas? It may be a sucky move to ask my readers for ideas but hey, I only do this for fun anyways.  
I hope you enjoy this chapter.


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